As I filled up my little Ford Escort at the pump yesterday, and gas prices had gone up 15 cents overnight, I began to wonder at the significant increase we’ve had in the USA for the past year - our gas prices have more than doubled since about January 04, and they’re predicted to increase throughout the summer. Granted, they were low in the past - too low compared to most other countries.
So I began to wonder if other countries have had their gas prices double over the past year?
Eric
Maybe the US is just catching up to the pack. Boy am I glad I don’t have a car anymore.
On the other hand, I’ll be renting one briefly at end of May; not looking forward to the prices!
You’d think it would snap people’s reality into check wouldn’t ya? Living in a state with moderate winters, everyone here seems to feel that they MUST have the biggest, most inefficient fuel guzzling SUV’s they can buy. And of course, when the snow flys, it still comes down to the fact that they don’t know how to drive and it’s all the SUVs you see on the news in fatal crashes etc.
It seems that only now are some of the auto makers offering more fuel efficient models of their vehicles, including some hybrids and electrics - something that should have taken place two decades ago I think. With the cost of oil and fuel rising one wonders how much more the market will bear of our over-consumption. The prices at the pump are starting to worry more than just a few it seems…and perhaps that’s as it should be.
I read an article the other day that said if you figure in inflation, gas today is actually not as expensive as it has been in times past. Tell that to my pocketbook.
Susan
Pices go up and down, they were well over a euro a liter here for a bit, went down again to the low 90s (depending on where you bought it) but they have been going up a bit recently.
You guys were getting it ridiculously cheap all the time so I suppose you’re only catching up, comparison of European priceshere</a](http://www.aaroadwatch.ie/eupetrolprices/">here</a)> a comparison of Irish prices here .
Yeah, it’s weird. Though I’m observing a slight downward trend in the average size of vehicles on the road from the last year or two.
well in europe the gas and fuel become even more expensive in following of tax programs in germany,where I life actually for a while, to save the nature (but they put the money into the rental system for the seniors),and the energy traders put the prices higher and higher(mainly cause of taxes and(as they always say) cause of the oil problems in iraq and rest of arabia.
but thats more just a saying than truth.
Julian
Does anyone know how fuel prices compare around the world if you factor out the variations in tax in the different countries?
So, um… curious.
In the states, we depend a great deal on truckers (big trailer trucks and the like), transporting goods (food, clothing, furniture; store goods) often across large distances. Trains to (which run on disel I think). Without trains and trucks in paticular, there’d be next to nothing on our shelves. (Can’t speak for other countries I’ve never been to, not to say they don’t rely on such things to, however…)
I’ve noticed since the fuel prices have gone up that the price of food/goods has gone up, my guess is to offset the cost of fuel to transport (and in some cases, manufacture) such goods. (I wonder what the truckers have to say about rising fuel costs.) Saw disel costing more than unleaded the other day (I recall it used to run less than unleaded, suddenly it’s more?) Can’t imagine the truckers would be happy about that. Rising fuel costs effect more than just our pocketbook at the pump.
Like someone pointed out in the passport thread, the United States is rather, um… big. People are used to needing to travel long distances in a car to see family or to commute to work (or sometimes just to get groceries). There are a lot of rural areas, even some cities, where public transportation isn’t functional/practical or simply doesn’t exist. Having regular access to a car is a necessity in many places, not a luxury.
I get the impression that people don’t depend on cars as much in Europe/UK region as we do here. Is that impression an acurate one? Are big trailer trucks as common there as here? Even then, there’s not such a distance to transport goods there as there is here, is there?
Guess what I am wondering is… While high gas prices still have their effect anywhere, wouldn’t high gas prices cause a bigger problem here in the states where there are such large distances involved and more people depend on having a car verses the UK/Europe where distances are smaller and (the impression I have whether right or wrong) that people don’t depend on having a vehicle quite as much?
Sara (who didn’t write that very well, but has been up all night with a sick baby so that’s as good as it’s going to get right now)
Good stuff all.
Peter - thanks for the with prices - we’re still not paying nearly as much as folks across the pond.
However, it doesn’t sound like there has been a big price increase over the past year for you all. Am I right?
I’m just wondering if the price increase is a USA only thing or worldwide.
I’d dearly love to have better public transportation in the US. In Kansas City, I’m able to bus to and from work, but there are a lot of places we can’t reach by public transport so we need the car, too.
Eric
Prices fluctuate with the oil price which is rising at the moment they have been higher in the past and they have been down a good but as well during the year. They have certainly not doubled recently.
As to the other problem, I think providing and maintenaning of a good public transport system is a sign of good and sensible government. Dependance on cars in Ireland is higher than in most places in Europe.
Here is where we (the US) have done it to ourselves.
Yes, the US is big. But in many cases, people don’t “need” their cars for their work commutes or travel. They have chosen a lifestyle where a car is required. The people in California (or anywhere, sorry, I don’t mean to single out Californians) who have a 2-3 hour commute each way have chosen to live that far away from their work. They don’t want to live closer because they don’t have to with a car. If commuting wasn’t so easy, they would probably live closer to their work. People like to have their cake and eat it too. Gas prices are only a problem to people who chose a lifestyle that makes it so.
(Granted there are instances where a person has no choice but to travel but I would say these are not the norm)
The western US developed with the car unlike the eastern part or Europe. Thus the European and eastern US cities have better mass transportation because it is not so easy to get around in a car. The older towns weren’t built for cars; streets are tight and since traveling long distances was more difficult, everything is closer together and there are small town centers here and there. This is why people there don’t appear to depend on cars so much. By accident, their cities were planned better.
The westen US is poorly designed to foster community and ease of travel without a car.
And the thing to remember about rural folks is they didn’t used to travel into town everyday. Going into town used to be a big deal because you only did it every couple weeks or even monthly, and when you went in, you stocked up so you didn’t have to go in again. Some still do it this way. So even rural folks don’t “need” to travel long distances all that often.
As a population, we have become dependent on the car and take it for granted. IF for some reason, all the cars disappeared, we’d figure out how to deal without them. But until that happens, cars are like cell phones - a lot of people can’t imagine living without them and refuse to do so.
I’ll get off my soapbox now.
someone above brought up my “pet peeve” about some of those that complain about gas prices -
What are you driving? If it’s a big, new Expedition, and you aren’t daily driving gravel roads and hauling around 7 people, I don’t want to hear your complaints. Our two “primary” cars get 25 - 30 mpg. We do have a gas hog conversion van, but we only use that for festivals, and only when we are going to be sleeping in it (so we are saving money by not renting motel rooms - and the price of gas is going to have to go up a lot further before that savings is offset).
What’s your commute each day? If you live 30 or more miles away from where you work (quite common here, actually), I don’t want to hear your complaints. I would LOVE to live in the country, but I hate rush hour traffic. I only live 2 miles away from where I work, and I purposely bought this house to be close to work. Kids schools are 1 mile and 2 miles away from the house. DH is retired, so other than if he needs to drive the youngest (oldest drives), there are days he doesn’t take the car out.
We have lousy mass transit here (there is no way to go east - west, you need to go south to downtown to transfer to a different north bound bus). They’ve been “discussing” light rail - but it won’t be where it needs to be to relieve congestion.
Missy
I posted this on another thread, but bears repeating. The average cost of car ownership is about $8000 per year. This includes depreciation, insurance, and repairs. Fuel even with a 50% hike in the past couple of years, remains less than 20% of this total. A handful of Americans are flinching at buying that big car or SUV. However, anecdotally, a friend recently bought a brand new car and chose the bigger engine for more power over the smaller engine for better fuel economy. This friend is as frugal as people get without being compulsive. To me that means, the price of gas isn’t high enough to make the average American make substantial changes, not yet.
It isn’t mandatory, however, for the oven mitt in my local supermarket to be manufactured 3000 miles away. If gas prices ever make transportation genuinely prohibitive, you’d probably see local goods become more competitive, and some more localization in manufacturing to offset the change. This wouldn’t negate higher gas prices, but the effect would be softened some.
Caj
I’m not understanding this ‘you live far away, so it’s your fault you use so much gas’ thing.
Don’t you understand that houses cost more in the city than further out? (Or maybe they
don’t where you are, I don’t know.) I live as far away from the city as I do because that
was the nearest town that had buyable houses.
As it turns out, I’m now working a very short commute away, at a company that’s far outside
of the city for probably the same reasons… but, if I’d stayed in the city and gotten the same
job I have now, then I’d be on a long reverse commute. I really view the length of my
commute as being a product of chance.
I don’t know who you people are that you can pick the location of your next job and the
location of your next home to be as close as you want, but that doesn’t resemble my life.
(Oh, and I drive a toyota corolla at 35 mpg (measured, not sticker), and would drive a
hybrid if I could afford one and take public transit if it existed. There is a train station
near my house, but it only travels in an east-west line, no good for me.)
While I do grumble at the gas prices, I’m mostly put out by the fact that my car gets
-only- 35 mpg, and the fact that we don’t have enough solar and wind power out there
(no, really, there’s a connection… energy is exchangeable in the electric sector, we
could cut gas prices if, say, all the diesel burning electric plants were shut down. 'twould
also be nice if sustainable electricity were being pumped into the grid at rates that would
make electric heat in the winter the most cost-efficient option, then we could lose oil
burning heating systems…)
Regarding the average cost of car ownership… I can’t imagine wasting that much money
on a vehicle. Insurance, depreciation, and all, I probably have a cost much closer to $2000
per year, not including gas. I can’t imagine letting it get over $3000.
I will grant that -as a society- Americans have ‘chosen’ this (or been sold this) state
of affairs, but individuals are driven by their individual situations.
Chris,
Re: wind power generation, I am very much in favor of the development of wind farms.
Your avatar indicates that you are from Massachussetts. I understand that your two Senators put the major kibosh on a wind farm that was being designed for just off Cape Cod. Is that true?
What were those Senators names again? 
Chris - yes it IS the opposite here than where you live. I live in the city (and, unfortunately, pay the city taxes) but the housing, for the most part is a lot lower in cost than that out from the city. For example, in the farming area I grew up in (25 miles away from where I work - and a coworker lives a stones throw from my old house), the houses now go for an average of $300,000 - and $500,000 is not uncommon. And these are TINY lots!!!
But housing is a lot less in the city (ever hear of “white flight”?). As long as you understand you may have some section 8 or group home housing by you (which I have no problem with), you can get some great deals. Although - as I said - the property taxes are still high.
How do I find a house near where I work? I’ve worked at the same location (and may be moving to one 2 miles away) since 1978. Got an apartment 2 miles away in 1979, bought my first house in 1982, and the current one in 2000. So, the job came first, the location second.
I agree that the cost equation for cars doesn’t add up for me, either - because we tend to drive our cars until they die. We upkeep them, of course, and do a lot of work ourselves. My 1998 Grand Am has 66,000 miles on it, and last long highway trip we took I got 32 mpg. DH has a 96 Contour that is still under 100,000 - and I think his mileage is comparable to mine. We also have a 1979 pickup that my son drives (lousy milage, but he doesn’t drive too far except to his girlfriends house!) oh - and that has 89,000 miles on it (original!). And a 92 conversion van that we bought used 2 years ago. Like I said - drive em till they die.
Missy
I’m with you, Missy!
I have a 1987 Toyota with 93,000 miles on it (original). I plan on keeping it until I can get an electric or hydrogen car (or whatever renewable energy may yet come along). I had 92,000 miles on it in 2001. The majority of my commuting, shopping, etc., is done on my bicycle. I have no problem with weight or staying in shape. My gasoline budget may amount to $100/year.
Yes, exactly. If fuel prices got too high, you wouldn’t see a mega-plant in California shipping goods to the entire country. You’d see localized manufacturing and distribution. I think that’s a great thing though.
The problem with wind power isn’t cost of production (which is cheap), but cost of distribution. Electricity isn’t cheap to store and transport. I don’t know exactly how it compares to gasoline though.
Americans love to bitch about gas prices, but honestly it’s still too low to have a huge impact. For example, lets say the price rises from $2 to $3 overnight. The entire country would go nuts, right? Okay, so let’s say you were spending $30 a week at $2/gal. You’ll only be paying an extra $15 a week for the $3 gas. If you are so strapped for cash that you can’t afford $15 a week, you have some serious problems. But of course, gas won’t rise $1 overnight will it? Let’s say it only rises $0.10 overnight. Do the math, and notice how TRIVIAL that extra amount really is.