Gas Prices

[Leo Lakio]

Re: Gas Prices

Out of curiosity, what are people's thresholds here? Meaning, at what price point where you will simply say, forget it, I ain't driving and will walk, bus, etc?

Not sure. I've preferred walking or busing for years; my car is my "alternate" means of transportation, the one that I use for longer distances or for hauling gear or for late-night transport. (I bought it new 14 years ago, and it has only about 62,000 miles on it.) With gas over $4/gallon, I average about one fill-up a month, around $30 at a time. That's far below any threshold I can envision.

[cyleet99]

Re: Gas Prices

Excellent idea!

[Creative-1]

Re: Gas Prices

I figured I have no control over gas prices, but could hedge the cost by investing in an energy mutual fund (Fidelity Select Energy).

It's nearly doubled in value in the last 2 years.

I'm getting kicked in the teeth at the pump, but growing my retirement account by 5 times that.

[LikaNui]

Re: Gas Prices

I haven't followed this whole thread so forgive me if someone already mentioned this, but... is there anyone who didn't think the prices would get jacked up for the holiday weekend? That was a no-brainer. No chance the prices wouldn't go up.
Be interesting to see if they go back down a bit on Tuesday.

[tutusue]

Re: Gas Prices

My Makaha to Waikiki commute now costs approx. $16./rt.[...]

I grossly underestimated! I topped off the tank yesterday after the equivalent in miles of the Makaha/Waikiki round trip.

$24.
$4.08/gal.

Thinking positively while staying in denial <g>, the 80 miles I put on my car prior to topping it off were all highway and hill driving...no freeway miles. Ooooh...that makes me feel so much better!

[Bobinator]

Re: Gas Prices

I run my Honda Civic 40 miles each day to and from work from Salt Lake to Kapolei, including a quick stopover to the babysitters in the neighborhood. At 34 miles/gallon (mostly freeway), I spend approximately $4.47 in gas/day, not including trips elsewhere during the course of the day.

I'm checking out some ground breaking technology in the area of boosting your vehicle's gas mileage. There's some awesome stuff coming out, which I beleive were and are being repressed by car manufacturers and oil companies. I say this because the technology is relatively simple. It seems these two are in cahoots with each other to make us burn a lot more fuel than we need to. Imagine if we could get a 100 miles/gallon. It's possible. Check out this website: http://bwt.jeffotto.com/, and click on "Technology Products", then select, "Better World Technologies". It speaks of a Hydro Fuel Cell and Catalytic converter you can install in any vehicle that may increase your gas mileage up to 100%. There are video demos as well.

[zff]

Re: Gas Prices

These are posts I made on other forums. They are slightly out of context here given the specific discussions I took them from, but they all relate to gas prices.

Gas is too cheap, if you ask me.

Just look at what happened in 2005 when Katrina caused the price of gas to soar.

UPS installed a system that maps out the path for drivers to take when delivering their packages. The computerized path avoided left turns, and as a result, the company saved something like a million gallons of fuel every month. The technology had been around for years, so why didn't they do this before? Before Katrina hit, gas was cheap, so they didn't care that they were wasting it.

Katrina also caused sales of big SUVs to drop 15-25% per month, and sales of fuel-efficient small cars to increase the same amount. It turns out Americans didn't really need all that cargo and passenger space after all! Surprise!

2005 also saw a sharp increase in ride-sharing programs across the country.

These are all the things we were all supposed to be doing anyway! Companies like UPS shouldn't be wasting fuel. New car buyers shouldn't buy gas-guzzling SUVs if they don't need the room. People are supposed to be carpooling and using ride-sharing programs whenever possible in the first place!

When gas is cheap, we waste it. We practically throw it away, and we screw up our roads and our environment in the process. Here in Hawaii, it also means more cars are on the road, more of them will be big unnecessary SUVs, and traffic just gets worse.

Money is the only thing people listen to. Scientists and our government have been preaching this shit for years -- carpool, don't waste gas, use public transportation -- nobody listens. It's only when it hits the wallet that people notice.


So like I said, if gas hits $10/gal, I don't mind. It means fewer cars on the road, and way fewer SUVs. Good.

If you ask me, gas is too cheap. It should be so expensive that most people can't afford to drive on a regular basis. The only problem is we don't have a public transportation infrastructure that provides a good alternative.

If they taxed our gas to the point where it's not affordable for most households, but they used all that extra tax revenue on an effective public transportation system, I think that would actually be a good idea.

Under MOST circumstances, people should be using public transportation. Right now we have to drive ourselves because there's no good public alternative, but do you really need to drive your own car everywhere you go?

If there was an effective way to get to 90% of the places you need to go, it was clean, safe, cheap and readily available... wouldn't you use it most times? I would. I would still have a car, of course, but I wouldn't use it nearly as often as I do now.

The only good way to get people to change their lifestyle in a capitalistic society is by charging them for behavior you want to curb and paying them (or reducing their costs) for behavior you want to encourage. The post above illustrates some of the problems when you try to regulate public behavior directly. Money is the only thing people honestly respond to.

Taxing gas to run an effective public transportation network has a lot of benefits. It affects public behavior without having to create additional laws, it provides the money needed for the system, it reduces traffic, it helps the environment, it's safer for the public, etc. The only thing bad about it is it requires people to change, and no one is going to vote for a public official that does that.

When gas is expensive, companies will start to look for alternatives to using it. Right now, those alternatives are not cost effective, but if gas was $10 or more a gallon, they would be. Expensive but efficient shuttle and delivery services will begin to appear to consolidate transportation needs. Companies will be forced to use them to save money because it'll still be cheaper than burning gas in their own vehicles. Ride-sharing programs will crop up and people will use them. People will be forced to carpool or catch the bus.

$10/gal gas will cause all kind of changes. Companies will have to drastically change the way they do things, and so will individual families. None of these things are things we WANT to do. It'll all be things we HAVE to do. Once the initial whining and complain is over and people are used to the new standard of life, it'll be better for all of us in the long run.

It's happened before. For you younger ones here, ask your parents about the 70s oil crisis. Gas was so scarce, you could only fill your car on certain days depending on the last digit of your license plate -- and only if you had less than a quarter tank (they checked). It was a critical situation nationwide. Gas prices skyrocketed, we had runaway inflation, business had to completely change the way they did things, people lost their jobs, and society suffered in all kinds of ways.

The 70s were tough, but we got a lot of positive changes out of it. The government established fuel-efficiency standards for the auto industry. They encouraged ride-sharing by creating carpool lanes. Energy efficiency actually became an issue. Today, we might see these as baby steps, but they were epic changes in their day. Nobody in the 70s would have said the oil crisis was a good thing, but now -- 30 years later -- we can say our country is better because of it.

The situation today is no different -- in fact, it's not even as bad. Yet, just like the 70s, we have plenty of alarmists with their sky-is-falling ballyhooing and crybabies with their woe-is-me entitlement whining. Sure, it'll be tough for a while, but in the long run, $10/gal gas is probably a good thing. You guys need to open your eyes and see the big picture.

[TuNnL]

Re: Gas Prices

my friend's daughter owns a GEM. the one time she parked in a metered stall without paying, she got a ticket.

I certainly hope she contested the ticket!

[salmoned]

Re: Gas Prices

I'm looking forward to $6/gal gas! We may really see some conservation by then! Will we soon all be asking why anyone thought a rail transit system was needed as the roads empty out?

[Da Rolling Eye]

Re: Gas Prices

I live 2 miles from my work place and ride a scooter. 1 tankful (something like 1.7L) lasts me 2 weeks, including the occasional jaunt to the market. I even bought a rain suit so I can ride to work on rainy days. Takes a while to get ready, but I do get to work dry.

Right now, I'm tuning up a "new" bike so I can do some bike riding on nice days. Start getting some excercise.

Our second car now sits in the driveway and only used for picking up our daughter from school when Mom can't get off on time. Very seldom. I end up filling the tank only once a month.

Our Caravan get used daily by the wife. If she sticks to only the 10 mile round trip to school and back, we top off a half tank every 2 weeks. Unfortunately, we also drive out to the North Shore or Pearl City side for eating out and such.

[tutusue]

Re: Gas Prices

[...]
That would be an interesting way to contribute to this thread. Do the calculation of your daily commute (no need say specifically from where to where) and tell us how much you're paying for your particular drive in total gas price.[...]

My Makaha to Waikiki commute now costs approx. $16./rt.

[...]
But that's just the fuel cost. There's also the cost of buying the car in the first place, plus insurance and maintenance and repair. I haven't actually done the math but my guess is that my annual cost to own and run my car is at least $5,000 -- $3,000 in car payments, $1,000 in insurance, $1,000 in fuel, plus I don't know how much for maintenance and repairs.

I did the car math, thanks to Quicken, for 2007. Expenses came out to $325./mo. I don't have a car payment. Gas was $90. of that $325.

Out of curiosity, what are people's thresholds here? Meaning, at what price point where you will simply say, forget it, I ain't driving and will walk, bus, etc?

I don't have a threshhold in mind. Instead, I'll tally up all my car expenses for 2008 as I did for 2007. Then I'll put together some possible figures for around town bus and cab usage. There are 2 car rental companies in my town building and I'll talk to them to see if I can strike a somewhat good deal when I need a car, like for time I spend in Makaha. Still, it's hard to put a price on convenience. While Makaha used to be my primary residence, the commute is just too expensive now. Town is now my primary residence because of the convenience. I'll probably put on only about 4000 miles this year.

[joshuatree]

Re: Gas Prices

Out of curiosity, what are people's thresholds here? Meaning, at what price point where you will simply say, forget it, I ain't driving and will walk, bus, etc?

[Lei K]

Re: Gas Prices

Regular was at $4.09 where I live in Southern California last time I was at the pump, may be more today.

[SusieMisajon]

Re: Gas Prices

Wimps!

Ours works out to over ten dollars a gallon.

[Vanguard]

Re: Gas Prices

I thought Hawai'i was supposed to be expensive compared to other places. Regular in most stations in Southern California is OVER $4 per gallon. Costco is an exception. Still under $4 for regular with premium right at $4.

I understrand that premium in the San Francisco area is over $4.50.

Regular is over $4 in New York right now. Now I have one more reason to want to move.