http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41938193/ns/business-oil_and_energy?gt1=43001 So it's an old story, but gas has once again jumped up a retarded amount. Really nothing to add, so I will get right to the... FOCUS: What is your reaction to retarded prices of gas? Are you taking more public transit? Walking more, or cancelling superflous road trips? ALT FOCUS: It is looking like there are a lot of people/companies trying to replace the standard internal combustion vehicle. What do you think is going to be the next big thing in transportation technology?
My first reaction is that I'm glad I make enough money that temporary fluctuations in the price of gas aren't really something I have to worry about. About two years ago, though, I did move about a mile from work. I could walk if I wanted, but I'm kind of lazy so I still drive. But the gas bill is never too bad when you're driving 2 miles a day. My second reaction is that I heard some guy talking in December about how oil was going to hit $100 a barrel and it seemed like a really plausible theory, and I thought "I should buy some oil futures" and then I didn't.
This is my basic reaction, I guess: It's retarded how these things get seized on to boost the price. Of course, every single supplier does it, so there's no getting around it. Isn't that sort of thing supposed to be illegal? I imagine Teddy Roosevelt would have something to say about it, if he were around. Half being stupid on my part, but half genuinely interested why this sort of thing happens.
Living in Shanghai Ive tried out the subway system a lot. Mostly because my income, or lack there of, doesnt allow me to take the cabs that are still insanely cheap compared to western standard all over the place. Ive always heard the "Americans" are too damn lazy and depend on cars too much, but too be honest, they let the fucking individual have the most efficient control over their time needs. The only benefit Ive found is that in transit you don't need to focus as much and can read or listen to music while the train whisk you around, that's about it. Having too add in the time needed to get from your house to the nearest train station, the time riding and exchanging lines, and the time getting from the station to your final destination eats up so much time it is makes it so impractical for so many situations. This is a static amount of time that will always be there, shit a least there might not be a traffic jam once a week. Though it can be a lot cheaper, for example it's two bucks to get to the international airport 30 miles away in about hour and ten minutes with an extra twenty minutes getting too and from the station (it's about 25 bucks by taxi in a half an hour). The maglev (at a cost of 2 billion) covers the same ground in about 10 minutes for 8 bucks but you have too add in the time it takes to get to that station either by train or taxi. This is why Im not holding my breath about "high speed rail" being some sort of utopian cure all to our transportation ills. It might do well in a few select markets but won't give enough benefits over all to make that much of a difference on a national scale.
While yes, gas companies use any uprising or Middle East crisis as a sleazy excuse to jack prices, there's a reason it's expensive. It's because they have to find it, drill or dig for it, refine it, ship it, and first and most importantly of all murder whatever Godless people are living on top of it.
FOCUS: I'm with this smug son of a bitch. I live in the sticks now and would need to walk 8 miles to take a 45 minute bus ride to work... which is only 12 miles from my place... so yeah, I don't care if it hits $10/gallon, I'm fucking driving. When I lived in the city though, it was public transportation all the time, it's so heavily subsidized, my gf didn't even have a car.
Unless there is snow on the ground, I ride my bike to the train station every day. It's about a mile from my house, so I can walk it no problem during shitty weather. For the warmer 8 months of the year, I have a motor scooter which thus far has not cost more than $6/week in gas, not to mention the parking and insurance savings. I borrow one of my parents' cars for the winter. Besides going on snowboarding trips, I probably average 15 miles of driving per week, plus for an SUV it is very gas efficient. If it hits the fan, I'll ride my bike everywhere. The only problem is my job heavily relies on the performance of the shipping industry. We would have to inflate the cost of our product to cover freight.
I looked at the bus but it would help if public transportation weren't so damn expensive.. I live 15 minutes away from where I need to be 4/5 times a week and to ride the bus(OCTA) is $1.50 1 way or $4 for a day pass?! It's still much cheaper to drive and it would take 1/3 of the time since I would need to get there(still drive 5 minutes), wait for the bus, and change routes. Driving slower is making a big difference on my fuel economy. While I heard about the 55 mph optimal cruising speed a few years ago, I never actually tried it until this past week. <a class="postlink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_economy-maximizing_behaviors" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_econo ... _behaviors</a> I drive a toyota 2009 corolla and I got about 46.5MPG now. I'm lucky enough that my commute involves only about 2 miles of freeway time to the point where I'd have stay in the slow lane anyways (so I notice almost no difference in travel time)but there is a definite increase in time when you commute longer distances (I'd hazard a guess of a good 20% for 30% supposed gas savings).
Gas companies arent raising prices, OPEC is. The oil companies have to respond accordingly, they're too heavily regulated to do it on their own. OPEC is notoriously corrupt but unfortunately, were at their mercy and don't really have a choice. I heard talk of opening up the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to reduce the impact, but that probably won't happen either. ANWR isn't looking too bad these days...
In the grand scheme I guess it doesn't matter what gas costs, everything else will just go up i price to compensate, including my time. It is a little painful to drop $60 on a fill-up for either of my commuter cars (both take premium but deliver 29ish mpg). I also find it hilarious that friends on Facebook are participating in "gas free days"... like it fucking matters. People need to get places quickly nowadays and they like the freedom of driving their own car too much to flock to public transit.
Honestly, this is a HUGE problem here in Texas because of the size of the state. The way the state is structured there is lots of people living in the major cities San Antonio, Dallas, Austin, etc, however outside of those cities people still live there or travel for work. Although I live I actually live in Dallas and only 15 minutes away from work by car, the bus takes almost an hour and a half to get to work making it impossible for me to get there on time due to the bus schedules. This is me just living close by to work. When I lived anywhere else in the state but still in the DFW area I NEVER had access to mass transit. You can bet your ass I'd use it more if it were available. I spend almost $700 now on a car payment and insurance. Fuck that.
I avoid being stung by rising gas prices by not knowing how to get around, not having a car, and having generally only the faintest idea of what goes into driving.
Like LatinGroove, where I live in the DFW area, I don't have access to mass transit. A commuter rail station is in the works in my town, but it's destination is Dallas and points along the way. I commute in the opposite direction. I would have to drive to another town southeast of me (20 minutes without traffic) to access a commuter rail to get a train that takes another 30 minutes to get me to the town where school is (not including then getting on a bus to get me to campus). I'd be looking at a mass transit commute of 1.5-2 hours depending on my good fortune with traffic and catching the train and bus versus a drive of 35-40 minutes. Then, factor in the reduced train schedule after rush hour since my commute home starts at 8:30 pm, and who knows what time I'd be getting in. I'm not thrilled with paying $75/week to fill up, but my mass transit alternative would be even more expensive in out-of-pocket cash as well as time. With the current prices, fueling up my truck, my wife's Beetle and the SUV my daughter drives (it was my old Tahoe that I put $5,000 into it in repairs and replacements in the two years after I paid it off, so it didn't make sense to get rid of it), we're putting out over $500 for gas each month, but there's really not much we can do about it. They should make a car that runs on pee. Everybody's gotta go sometime. You can empty and fill-up at the same time. How efficient is that?!
Correct, the overall trend, and oil price variations are typically measured in 10 year trend comparisons, is due the market change into the SUV loving economy we have now, no doubt. I was more talking about the recent spike in prices over te last few months. OPEC can hold the world by its balls if it wants too, and uses any international event as an excuse as the utility value of petroleum far outweighs rational price considerations. Also, there's no real competition within oil trade or outside. Electric and biodiesel are nowhere near any glimpse of realistic competition. Quite the perfect little oligopoly.
I'm in pretty good shape on this. I drive a vehicle that is paid for, buying a new one will take forever to offset fuel costs. Aside from that I live in a rural area surrounded by small cities that terrible public transit so I don't have a lot of choice. I'm looking into buying a house and if I do I'll move closer to work. Alt Focus: I think fuel of the future could be a combination of things. Higher efficiency engines coupled with hybrid style technology could win out but they have to have some power and cannot look like a pregnant rollerskate to attract most drivers. They will also need to get 70+ mpg. I just saw a commercial where I think they said a Honda Accord should get like 40 (non-hybrid). If its going to cost more and require new batteries it has to get far better mileage. I think they will get there. There may be some new technologies that really work in our future but until then efficiency gains seem to be the best option. Maybe streamlining the emissions systems would help. I'm not a mechanic so some of my ideas could be way off base but ethanol, electric, hydrogen do not seem to have the public approval or are simply not practical choices. For city driving electric could work but unlike Europe the US is spread out and outside of the city or for other trips electric cars just can't cut it. If it has a small gas powered generator it might work but that's really a form of hybrid in my mind. I don't know much about Hydrogen but it sounds like fueling will be the biggest issue for those. I'm thinking Hybrids or a form of diesel engine will probably work best until another engine can be developed.
I might take public transportation more often if I didn't live in the largest city in the US without a public transportation system. Voters have decided to raise the sales tax to pay for stadiums but don't want to pay for a bus system. Even if we had a public transport system, I'd probably be fucked because I work in a different city; fortunately it's only about 12 miles from where I live.
You Americans can shut the fuck up about fuel prices. Here in Canada diesel is 1.29 a litre and gasoline is 1.21. So about 5 bucks a gallon for diesel and about 4.72 a gallon of gasoline. It costs roughly $155 CAD to fill my truck up so trust me, Id damn near suck a dick to pay 4.00 a gallon for diesel.
I hate the fact that it is all driven up artificially: <a class="postlink" href="http://useconomy.about.com/od/supply/p/oil_gas_prices.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://useconomy.about.com/od/supply/p/ ... prices.htm</a> Since the board has a no politics rule, I won't rail on about OPEC, but I think they suck. Read this, it will blow your mind: <a class="postlink" href="http://www.hotrod.com/techarticles/engine/hrdp_1009_what_ever_happened_to_smokeys_hot_vapor_engine/index.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.hotrod.com/techarticles/engi ... index.html</a> The sad thing is, they could get massively better mileage now, but instead give you a shitload more horsepower. Remember the Ferrari Testarossa of the mid 1980s? 5 liter flat-12 engine producing 380 h.p., it was a "supercar". Nowadays, you can get a Dodge Magnum with a 425 h.p. Hemi. That's a station wagon. That 425 h.p. Hemi gets 20mpg highway. If they can give you 425 h.p. and 20 mpg, what do you think they can do if they tune it for mileage instead of power?