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Gas Prices - Is anyone changing habits yet?

Eric in McLean said:
Unfortunately time has a value associated with it as well. I'm fairly certain I would pay $4 for 10 minutes of my life. If you're talking about all the drivers on the road, reducing the speed limit would cost our nation trillions of dollars.
Click to expand...

Eric,
There may be some validity to your argument if you are valuing your time more than, say, mine. I just don't see that across the board reductions of fuel use would be that onerous over the long term. Sure, at first there will be some costs, but they would equalize.

Seems to me that if all fuel use was reduced by mandate, there would be no- or limited economic cost. It would be the same for everybody. And everybody would benefit by the reduced use. Technology of vehicles, buildings, power generation will come in time, but that should not give us license to use all we can drill for and pump in the mean time. The way I see it, every gallon we leave in the ground is one that our progeny will have to use as they see fit. Surely we will have all the fuel we will need for the next 60-100 years, but someday, maybe one of our grandkids grandkids will shove a dipstick in the earth and it'll come up dry.

I know these forums are supposed to be limited to something to do with timeshares, so here goes.If we drive slower,save more fuel, we and our future descendants can timeshare more.

Jim Ricks
 
I'm not advocating wasting gas. I prefer people living closer to where they work so they wouldn't spend a ton of time commuting and burning fossil fuel in the process.

My point is that reducing the speed limit would make travel by car take longer. That time you spend in the car is unlikely to produce anything - hence the reduction of GNP.
 
I say let individuals make their own choice. Only you should put a value on your time, not the government. I can see limiting speed for safety purposes but to force people to use less gas is a bit too much regulating for me to stomach.
 
Eric,
Advocating that people live closer to where they work is all fine and good, but often not possible. I once lived about a mile and a half from work, living in an "inlaw apartment" attached to somebody's house. Once I decided to become a homeowner I had to move over 40 miles away if I wanted to live somewhere that was both affordable and safe. At the time I lived in California, and homes in or near major cities had become unafordable for those who either made big bucks or were "trading up" a previous house.

Fern

Eric in McLean said:
I'm not advocating wasting gas. I prefer people living closer to where they work so they wouldn't spend a ton of time commuting and burning fossil fuel in the process.
Click to expand...
 
I DID change jobs last year, because of fuel costs; I was driving 45 minutes each way and filling up every third day, went to 7 minutes each way and filling up every other week.

But I just traded in the Subaru 2 weeks ago on an Altima with the V6... and I wasn't thinking. the Subaru got 25.4 mpg in normal driving, without me trying to maximize it... the Altima gets 21.4 when I drive it like it's about to run out, and it takes premium to boot! The difference amounts to about $5 a week, all said and done. I can live with that, but I should have been thinking; I should have gone with the 2.5 instead of the 3.5 motor. I prefer 4 cyl engines anyhow. But like I said, I wasn't thinking. And I do this for a living.

But the Altima IS one heck of a wonderful car. It is one of the most beautiful shapes I've ever seen on a sedan, and it's got options on top of options. It makes me feel good to drive it, and that's what I'm paying the extra for.
 
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Mosca said:
I DID change jobs last year, because of fuel costs; I was driving 45 minutes each way and filling up every third day, went to 7 minutes each way and filling up every other week.

But I just traded in the Subaru 2 weeks ago on an Altima with the V6... and I wasn't thinking. the Subaru got 25.4 mpg in normal driving, without me trying to maximize it... the Altima gets 21.4 when I drive it like it's about to run out, and it takes premium to boot! The difference amounts to about $5 a week, all said and done. I can live with that, but I should have been thinking; I should have gone with the 2.5 instead of the 3.5 motor. I prefer 4 cyl engines anyhow. But like I said, I wasn't thinking. And I do this for a living.

But the Altima IS one heck of a wonderful car. It is one of the most beautiful shapes I've ever seen on a sedan, and it's got options on top of options. It makes me feel good to drive it, and that's what I'm paying the extra for.
Click to expand...
You only live once. Enjoy your new car. You can budget somewhere else.
 
My first $75 fillup yesterday, at $4.12 a gallon. . . :(
 
Our driving habits have changed in that we don't make trips that aren't needed. When Exxon makes more profit in one quarter than a combined total of most other companies in the US, I see a problem.

As far as our boat; that is a luxury item. When we invite people to go on the lake with us, it is with no expectation of anything. If it was intended that our friends or family foot a portion of the bill, we would tell them in advance. If we didn't feel we had that freedom, we would not invite them to begin with.

We do not have a yacht nor do we live in a mansion. Our goal has been to preserve and maintain a lifestyle that fits our family.

JMHO,
Cindy
 
I bought a VW Passat in 1997 that still gets 45mpg at whatever speed. Everyone cautioned me about buying a diesel car except one guy who already had this exact car. Guess who's laughing now! No tune ups in 11 years!

However, we recently drove to Disneyland. Our other car is an Accord which gets 35mpg. I did a quick run of the numbers for the roughly 900 mile round trip. VW would use 20 gallons; Accord 25. At the time, diesel was 50 cents a gallon higher than gas so the actual cost was within 10 bucks either way. So for this trip we took the Accord just for the newer ride.

This week, I see diesel is 90 cents a gallon higher than regular! I guess we "saved" by taking our trip before the higher difference in prices. :banana:
 
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gas saving habits

Fern Modena said:
Eric,
Advocating that people live closer to where they work is all fine and good, but often not possible. I once lived about a mile and a half from work, living in an "inlaw apartment" attached to somebody's house. Once I decided to become a homeowner I had to move over 40 miles away if I wanted to live somewhere that was both affordable and safe. At the time I lived in California, and homes in or near major cities had become unafordable for those who either made big bucks or were "trading up" a previous house.

Fern
Click to expand...

The reason why this is true because we all drank the "cool-aid" that said "move to the suburbs, plenty of cheap land out there" instead of revitalizing our cities and close-in suburbs. This crisis is a failure in land planning. We now have suburbs with houses on 1 acre lots, so wasteful. Then, when the suburb raises our taxes to pay for all the new infrastructure created by this wasteful use of land, we complain. We need a fresh approach to building up affordable communities near where we work, or we stand little chance of substantially reducing our gas consumption, which BTW, is TRIPLE the amount we used in the 1970's.
 
I expect to not pack as many things in my luggage when I fly in the future. That's a direct response to fuel prices, and will result in the airplanes that I fly having a lower load.
 
gas prices

Eric in McLean said:
Unfortunately time has a value associated with it as well. I'm fairly certain I would pay $4 for 10 minutes of my life. If you're talking about all the drivers on the road, reducing the speed limit would cost our nation trillions of dollars.
Click to expand...

So, I get up 6 minutes earlier for an 18 mile trip. The nation's economy would not crumble, IMHO, if everyone did that and drove slower. But maybe I'm naive. Way too many people on my commute, driving mid-size and larger cars and trucks, riding BY THEMSELVES, going 75,80,90 mph., IMHO. Seems very wasteful to me. I'll just do my thing and save 10% in my mpg.
 
Henderson, NV, Chevron Station, regular gas 3.81 on 5/25.

Lomita, CA, ARCO Station, regular gas 3.95 on 5/24.
 
I just bought bikes or the wife and myself. My wife will be using hers for exercise. I work at two locations and one of those is approx. 4 miles away. I'll be riding my bike when the weather allows for two reasons. a). I need the exercise and b). to save on gas.

Eventually as I become more fit the grocery store is approx. 2. 5 miles from home and I'll do what I can to ride and shop if I can figure out how to get the groceries home. There are other stores within riding distance and those short runs that required a car in the past will be replaced with a bike ride. Unfortunately I'm not a teenager anymore and It's going to take a while to get use to this change.

Recently I have requsted to put in 2 or 5 nights work at the location that's within bike riding distance. If I can do that I'll cut a total 30 miles per week from my driving habits. It doesn't sound like much but over the period of time that I can ride a bike it will add up. I figure I can probably save driving 990 miles/year if this actually works out. My present SUV gets 24 MPG. That would save me 41 gallons of gas per year. That's only a savings of $164/year so it's not really cost effective but, it does save a little and I will be getting more exercise than if I were pushing the gas peddle down on the car.

Our leases come up in Febuary. I have already calculated that gas must get above $5/gallon to really affect the expense of buying something new that gets better gas milage. A few months ago, I wasn't thinking it would be worth it. However I'm starting to rethink my stance on this. If I elect to keep the mini-van and the SUV we own, I'll have 3 more years of payments. Because we only drive each vehicle 7,500 miles/year we don't burn that much gas.

It's going to be a tough decision on trading two perfectly good low milage vehicles in for something that gets better gas milage. I'll be getting rid of cars that would be paid off in 3 years past the lease expiration and my monthly payments would likely be higher and definately go longer. It might be a worse financial deal in Feb. but could be a good deal if the price of gasoline climbs into the $6 or $8 range. I just don't see the price of gasoline going down with India and China on the fast track of developing nations in need of energy.
 
We have gone to Central Oregon for Memorial Day weekend for several years now and always dreaded the Monday drive home because of the traffic congestion, especially going over Mt. Hood.

This year there were significantly less cars on the road and we made it home in record time.

I definitely think people are traveling less.

Gayle
 
Heard on the radio yesterday that the "experts" are expecting gas prices in the range of $6 to $7 in the 12-24 month time frame.

Take this with a grain of salt, since I don't have a reference to who these "experts" are. But I fully expect $5 gas nationwide before the summer is out.

Kurt
 
The meaning of eternity

Passepartout said:
It occurred to me that if we were serious about reducing our dependence on foreign oil (or oil in general) or stretching supplies for future use, the surest, simplest way would be to mandate reduced speeds. To assume that economic incentives will accomplish the goal is shortsighted.

Jim Ricks
Click to expand...

On mandating reduced speeds, I remember when (under Carter?) the 55mph speed limit was imposed. Everyone hated it, but it did reduce both gas use and accidents. But this topic reminded me of when the government was hearing testimony on raising the speed limit from 55 to 65mph, and some Texas legislator made the comment that you don't know the meaning of eternity until you've driven across west Texas at 55 mph.

Having driven across west Texas several times myself, at various times of the year, I can attest to that. :) (And having done it at night, I can also confirm that the song is right: The stars at night ARE big and bright deep in the heart of Texas!)
 
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