Gas Price Has Drivers Fuming

[Chaos_BF1942]

I think the higher gas prices may be a good thing. People will look into getting cars with better miles pre gallon.

My dad makes a 100+ mile commute every day. It's called living in the suburbs, which a lot of people do.

Making a 100+ Mile commute may be living in the suburbs of another city. Here in Tampa, that is like driving to Orlando every day.

 

[Fetus4188]

nevermind .

 

[Desmond Hawkins]

Well stop whining that living in the suburbs costs a lot of money in gas.

It is clearly an inefficient urban layout, and if you are going to locate in a suburb, you should take transportation into account when judging the cost.

The solution to high prices: high prices.

In the long run, living 50-100 miles away from your employment is just foolish.

 

[bhsup]

I'm not going to complain about gas prices, any distance of a commute, or anything else, but I would like to point out some things to folks from other countries that are berating the US's living patterns.

USA: Slightly larger than China
UK: About the size of Oregon
Germany: About the size of Montana

We're far more spread out over here and the distances we travel are going to be greater. Mass transit systems are not always feasible in most areas of the country. I live on the edge of the greater Kansas City area, which I dare say is probably larger than some of the smaller countries around the world, and it's just a metro area.

Also, if you want to be happy with paying taxes that equal four times the amount of the product itself, that's your business and more power to you. Please don't expect us to engage in such insanity.

 

[Tenochtitlan]

Fine I'll do the math

If you have a car that gives you 30 miles to the gallon, and you drive 200 miles each weekday. At $3 a gallon the total annual cost of driving would come to $3600. That is if you don't drive 3 months of the year and don't drive on the weekends.


For a car that gives 14 mpg: $7714

 

[CivCynic]

Here is the story.

Poll: Gas Prices, Iraq Weigh Down Bush

May 1, 2006
(CBS/AP)


(CBS) With gas prices sky-high and no end of the Iraq war in sight, President George W. Bush's approval rating hits an all-time low in a new CBS News poll.

Only 33 percent approve of his job performance, Mr. Bush's lowest approval rating yet in CBS News polls. A majority – 58 percent of those polled – say they disapprove of the president. Mr. Bush appears to be losing support from his own party. His approval rating among Republicans has dropped to 68 percent. (Read the complete poll results here.)

Mr. Bush's ratings are even lower on the issues dominating news coverage: near-record gas prices and the war in Iraq.

The poll found that 74 percent of Americans disapprove of the president's handling of the gas crisis. Even more think that the administration has not developed a good plan to get gas prices under control.

DOES BUSH ADMINISTRATION HAVE CLEAR PLAN FOR KEEPING GAS PRICES DOWN?

No
82%
Yes
8%

But President Bush is not the only politician to carry the burden of high gas prices. The poll found that almost 90 percent think the government as a whole is not doing all it can to keep gas prices down. Respondents spread the blame across Washington.

WHO SHOULD HAVE RESPONSIBILITY FOR DEALING WITH GAS PRICES?

Congress
29%
Secretary of Energy
25%
President
24%

In what could be bad news for the Republican majority in Congress, 47 percent think that the Democrats would be more effective than the Republicans at keeping gas prices down. Only 20 percent thought Republicans would handle the situation better.

The violence in Iraq continues to damage Americans' opinion of the president. Exactly three years since the president gave the speech declaring "major combat operations" in Iraq at an end, Americans say that war remains the most important problem facing the country, and most do not approve of the way Mr. Bush is managing the war.

MR. BUSH’S HANDLING OF IRAQ

Approve
30%
Disapprove
64%

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, whose job has come under fire from several retired generals, also receives his lowest approval rating to date.

RUMSFELD JOB RATING

Approve
33%
Disapprove
49%
Don't Know
18%

As I said, Dida, President Bush can certainly not be held solely responsible, but more and more people are starting to think he's not handling the situation in the best way. As you can see, even some republicans are starting to have their doubts.

 

[A'AbarachAmadan]

I'm not so much worried about gas prices yet as my car and family van get good gas milage for their size. I am, however, worried about how it will affect home heating prices. Living in Okinawa we generally use only dehumidifiers in the summer. I don't mind 90+F as long as it isn't humid, but I'm moving to a cold weather location and in the 'winter' here we kept the heat at 78F, which I'm sure will cost way too much now. Time to buy a good pair of home sweats.

 

[Desmond Hawkins]

USA: Slightly larger than China
UK: About the size of Oregon
Germany: About the size of Montana

We're far more spread out over here and the distances we travel are going to be greater. Mass transit systems are not always feasible in most areas of the country.

Well, that obviously contributes to the sprawl of North America, but it still isn't an excuse. There is no reason that cities cannot be denser, and then just have greater space between cities. No one needs a daily commute from New York to Seattle.

Just because the space is there, it doesn't mean it isn't wasteful.

I'm not so much worried about gas prices yet as my car and family van get good gas milage for their size. I am, however, worried about how it will affect home heating prices. Living in Okinawa we generally use only dehumidifiers in the summer. I don't mind 90+F as long as it isn't humid, but I'm moving to a cold weather location and in the 'winter' here we kept the heat at 78F, which I'm sure will cost way too much now. Time to buy a good pair of home sweats.

Although it may be a pain to install, you could always invest in all sorts of insulated windows and other energy saving devices. Would probably be easier to do before you get all moved in then after you have already moved in.

 

[bhsup]

Excuse? I didn't mean for that post to be read as an excuse for anything since I see nothing wrong with how things are. It's only an attempt at an excuse if one assumes that densely packed cities are the only true and acceptable way to do things. What's wrong with being spread out?

 

[Desmond Hawkins]

No one is talking about true and acceptable.

But if people are complaining about gas prices and are acting like it isn't their fault they have a long commute, because America is huge, then I would say their point is void.

You can live close to where you work, but people choose not to.

There isn't a value judgement on my part, I am just saying don't whine about gas if you are silly enough to live 100 miles from work.

 

[bhsup]

There isn't a value judgement on my part, I am just saying don't whine about gas if you are silly enough to live 100 miles from work.

Well, that's fair enough and I certainly cannot argue with that. Regarding that woman mentioned in the original post, I definitely agree with you. Either don't gripe about the prices, or move closer to work, or get a car that gets 35+ mpg.

 

[Tenochtitlan]

I think drivers should stop whining and consume less.

 

[Erik Mesoy]

Gas is 11Kr a liter here in Norway, which comes out to above 5$ a gallon. You think you have problems?

 

[Pasi Nurminen]

I'm not going to complain about gas prices, any distance of a commute, or anything else, but I would like to point out some things to folks from other countries that are berating the US's living patterns.

USA: Slightly larger than China
UK: About the size of Oregon
Germany: About the size of Montana

We're far more spread out over here and the distances we travel are going to be greater. Mass transit systems are not always feasible in most areas of the country. I live on the edge of the greater Kansas City area, which I dare say is probably larger than some of the smaller countries around the world, and it's just a metro area.

Also, if you want to be happy with paying taxes that equal four times the amount of the product itself, that's your business and more power to you. Please don't expect us to engage in such insanity.

I guess this is just one of those down sides of having a piss poor excuse for urban planning. Really, when you have cities like Houston or Dallas just going everywhere, you deserve what you get. You should have, you know, planned and organized your urban environments so they'd be at least somewhat functional and you could put in a mass transit system. I mean, for Christ's sake, Houston doesn't even have zoning!

 

[shortguy]

This is one major problem with the US. The US is a nation built for the automobile, and we're paying for it now.

 

[CaptainF]

I recently heard about one guy in Southern California who makes a 376 mile round trip commute to work, 5 days a week.

The source said that he spends $1000 a month on gas.

That dude will be the first to get reamed by these gas prices.

 

[Tenochtitlan]

I recently heard about one guy in Southern California who makes a 376 mile round trip commute to work, 5 days a week.

The source said that he spends $1000 a month on gas.

That dude will be the first to get reamed by these gas prices.

What is he thinking

 

[Desmond Hawkins]

I mean, for Christ's sake, Houston doesn't even have zoning!

Japan doesn't have much zoning either, and it resulted in a fairly efficient urban layout.

Bad zoning is often worse than no zoning.

What is he thinking

He likes sleeping in the warmth of Santa Monica, but likes to work in the cool air of San Francisco.

 

[A'AbarachAmadan]

This is one major problem with the US. The US is a nation built for the automobile, and we're paying for it now.

It is definately different than Europe. When we lived in Germany we would often leave our car at home and travel around via train and local city transportation. A common thing for us was to sleep in a train Friday night, visit a city all day Sat & Sun sleeping wherever we could find a cheap place and sleeping in the train late Sunday getting back in time to make it to work on Monday morning.

 

[El_Machinae]

That dude will be the first to get reamed by these gas prices.

It's the transport companies (you know, the people who provide everything that we buy) that get hit the worst. Price fluctuations are really bad on the 'little guy' - which is rough, because they're the ones keeping the market competitive.

A huge commute, gasoline aside, seems foolish to me. Who wants to spend (at least) two hours in a car, just going to and from work? That seems mad, to me.

With home heating, people could just suck it up. I keep my house below 50F through the whole winter, and pay very little compared to most people. Plus I insulate, intentionally.