great news about gas prices!

[Maxxthepenguin]

People can always ride the bus. DING DING, WINRAR.

It takes me ~15 minutes to drive to work. The same commute by bus would take me ~1.5 hours with a single transfer. Rochester public transit sucks.

That's one thing that America has so bad and part of the reason we are so reliant on gas: Our public transportation is, in most places, fucking TERRIBLE.

[Ohemgee]

Everything I need is in walking distance. Gym, Super Target, Panda Express, GameStop, Subway, Quiznos, Blockbuster, Pai Wai (Thai resteraunt).


Don't need a car this summer 8)

[Septimus]

So how long before gas hits $200 a barrel?

Well, if the trend that I see on the news holds true, about 2 or 3 days after someone asks.

[Kyreth]

when it reaches an even $4.00/gallon all the people with OCD will stop complaining?

Alaska and Conn. already hit $4.00/gallon prices.

[Kyreth]

But srly, this country I think is in huge trouble over the gas thing. Like people said, we are essentially built wrong. Our country is setup where you live far away from where you work. Sadly, too we let our train systems go to shit after the car became so streamline.

We're so far in debt that I doubt we'll get to any solution to the problem anytime soon. /moves to China.

Funny thing is, the automobile companies back in the day bought up streetcar lines by the dozens.

They then scrapped them and used the right-of-ways for roads. Got rid of the competition, y'know. And established the "everyone needs their personal wheels" mindset that exists to this day.

American mass transit has been far behind ever since. The auto industry used to be a monster about anything that might compete with selling lots of fuel-chugging Cadillacs, and generally most non-urban areas (suburbs included) are pathetic for mass transit compared to their European counterparts. Hell, even the cities are.

Buses, trains, and subway funding (also, carpools/vanpools). It'd take time to get them all in place, but that's the solution to oil consumption in the USA. That it'd reduce traffic congestion would save even more, as significant chunks of fuel loss come from sitting on your ass in traffic, idling.

40 people drive to work. That's 40-gas eating machines.

Carpool them. 4, per car, that's only 10 on the road.

Vanpool them. 10 per vehicle, 4 on the road.

Bus them. 1 vehicle on the road.

[Khamsin]

Nobody is going to prefer a bus over a car except when its more convenient to them. e.g. they live or work in an urban downtown area with limited parking, or they're at college and didn't want to bring their car, or the schedule happens to work just right for them.

For most people, however, buses make what should be a 20 minute trip into a 2 hour one. First, you have to walk to the bus and wait for the next arrival that is going where you need it, and then you have to wait for it to make its rounds until you can get off at your stop... then you have to walk the rest of the way.

[Ksandra]

Nobody is going to prefer a bus over a car except when its more convenient to them. e.g. they live or work in an urban downtown area with limited parking, or they're at college and didn't want to bring their car, or the schedule happens to work just right for them.

For most people, however, buses make what should be a 20 minute trip into a 2 hour one. First, you have to walk to the bus and wait for the next arrival that is going where you need it, and then you have to wait for it to make its rounds until you can get off at your stop... then you have to walk the rest of the way.

This I agree, however mass transit is still an option, would just cost a fuckton of money to get there. And by mass transit I mean trains/subways. Like you said you have to wait on busses and they are often off-time. But here in the San Diego area I've seen two trains working pretty well. The Coaster to downtown SD, and another one just went up called the Sprinter (goes to two local towns). A lot of people take those to work. If the gov would (or could) make mass trains/subs people will use it, especially if enough trains are running. But like I stated we have no money and that is way to costly.

I know the subs in NY and Boston work really well too and are used by the truckloads.

Bit by bit if they did it though would help tons.

[dude]

so last year gas was $65 a barrel and $3 at the pump
this year its $125 barrel and $3.65 at the pump

i don't get it shouldn't gas be around $6 a gallon now.

[Kyreth]

Nobody is going to prefer a bus over a car except when its more convenient to them. e.g. they live or work in an urban downtown area with limited parking, or they're at college and didn't want to bring their car, or the schedule happens to work just right for them.

For most people, however, buses make what should be a 20 minute trip into a 2 hour one. First, you have to walk to the bus and wait for the next arrival that is going where you need it, and then you have to wait for it to make its rounds until you can get off at your stop... then you have to walk the rest of the way.

That's the point. Mass transit access and usage is pathetic stateside. Poorly funded, thought of only as "good for poor people", and cars are fuck-all problems when you have thousands of commuters trying to pack their vehicles into urban areas.

Suburban-to-urban mass transit is what needs the help first, but as population density grows, a lot of what's "suburbs" is getting to the point of urban levels of congestion...and you can't build roads to keep up. The only solution is getting people off those roads and keeping them off, and that means trains, buses, and subways.

The DC area is a perfect example of this. I work in the transportation industry here, and even in the last 5 years it's been depressing watching the road volume shoot through the roof, even as they nearly managed to kill the local rail projects from litigation and a near-cutoff of federal funds.

[Dolmen]

That's the point. Mass transit access and usage is pathetic stateside. Poorly funded, thought of only as "good for poor people", and cars are fuck-all problems when you have thousands of commuters trying to pack their vehicles into urban areas.

Suburban-to-urban mass transit is what needs the help first, but as population density grows, a lot of what's "suburbs" is getting to the point of urban levels of congestion...and you can't build roads to keep up. The only solution is getting people off those roads and keeping them off, and that means trains, buses, and subways.

The DC area is a perfect example of this. I work in the transportation industry here, and even in the last 5 years it's been depressing watching the road volume shoot through the roof, even as they nearly managed to kill the local rail projects from litigation and a near-cutoff of federal funds.

You speak pure truth there, specifically in regard to DC-area mass transit. There was so much support for a Metro line to Dulles airport, and they shot that down. For me to even take mass transit to work, it will take 3 hours of travel time each way (transfers, waiting, etc...), and cost roughly $10 round trip. Or I can drive the 20 miles to work for $6.50, and save 4 hours of travel time, round trip.

As for gas, $3.75/gal for Regular in Ashburn, VA.

[Day]

I drive an hour to work everyday, and I'm about ready to kill myself.

[arus2001]

so last year gas was $65 a barrel and $3 at the pump
this year its $125 barrel and $3.65 at the pump

i don't get it shouldn't gas be around $6 a gallon now.

Or gas should've been $1.90 back then.

I'm sure there's some complex economic juju at work, since you'd see Europeans pipe in about finally paying close to what they've had to for ages, but I personally can't shake the stigma that it's too convenient our gas costs SKYROCKET the 8 years an oil man and his oil man VP are in the White House.

All I know is I'll if when a Democrat comes out of the '08 election here the winner, by this time next year we'd be back to like $1.70 a gallon before Bush took charge. Sure, we should continue to invest in hybrid and alternative fuel methods, but gas now is having a serious trickle down effect on our economy. A lot of states could levy to raise minimum wages again another buck or 2, but that won't help when gas is $5 a gallon at this rate.

[Correction]

All I know is I'll if when a Democrat comes out of the '08 election here the winner, by this time next year we'd be back to like $1.70 a gallon before Bush took charge.

...what?

[Beckwin]

barack will use his muslim ties to get us cheap oil duh

he's got hook-ups

[Woozie]

Last summer I had to catch three buses to get to work, and I had to catch it at 6:30am just to get to work on time (at 9am). That's beyond inconvenient. I had to quit that job when school started because our transportation system wouldn't allow me the time to work that job and go to school. Now that I have a car, I can't imagine ever going back to catching the bus


And it's not just the timing that makes the bus inconvenient. There's also the fact that 95% of the people on the buses in Akron smell like crap, look like crap, and act like crap. The bus is also sort of dangerous to women and children, especially at night. I definitely wont let my daughters catch the buses around here if I'm still living around here when I have kids.

[SwampdonkeyPLD]

so last year gas was $65 a barrel and $3 at the pump
this year its $125 barrel and $3.65 at the pump

i don't get it shouldn't gas be around $6 a gallon now.

Or gas should've been $1.90 back then.

I'm sure there's some complex economic juju at work, since you'd see Europeans pipe in about finally paying close to what they've had to for ages, but I personally can't shake the stigma that it's too convenient our gas costs SKYROCKET the 8 years an oil man and his oil man VP are in the White House.

All I know is I'll if when a Democrat comes out of the '08 election here the winner, by this time next year we'd be back to like $1.70 a gallon before Bush took charge. Sure, we should continue to invest in hybrid and alternative fuel methods, but gas now is having a serious trickle down effect on our economy. A lot of states could levy to raise minimum wages again another buck or 2, but that won't help when gas is $5 a gallon at this rate.

Raising taxes and not drilling for more oil. If gas prices drop back to $1.70 under those conditions, someone is going to have to re-write the laws of economics.

[aurik]

Raising taxes and not drilling for more oil. If gas prices drop back to $1.70 under those conditions, someone is going to have to re-write the laws of economics.

Silly Swampy, Democrats only raise taxes for the rich. The poor have no more money to give.

[SwampdonkeyPLD]

Raising taxes and not drilling for more oil. If gas prices drop back to $1.70 under those conditions, someone is going to have to re-write the laws of economics.

Silly Swampy, Democrats only raise taxes for the rich. The poor have no more money to give.

Hehe, in this case it's the gas companies. Carter already tried that.

[arus2001]

Don't ruin my dreams. Would think the "if" would've qualified that. It's been hard enough to pay for my needed car repairs lately, let alone gas expenses.

[Correction]

barack will use his muslim ties to get us cheap oil duh

he's got hook-ups

Shit if all it took were close personal ties to billionaire muslims in oil-rich countries Dubya would have solved all our energy problems the minute he took office.