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so yeah, gas is out of control. here in Dublin, it shot from $2.50 to $3.00 is just about 6 hours. in Atalnts, $5.50 to $6.00. my birthday's tomorrow and my mom told me straight up that she was gonna get me a car, but not anymore. we can't afford gas for two cars. hell, if it keeps up we wont be able to afford gas...period. people are coming from as far as Macon(which is about 3 hours from here) just to stock up on gas. then at about 3:00 today, 5 gas stations ran out of gas and other posted signs restricting you to no more than $20.00 worth of gas per customer. they had to have police posted outside gas stations to keep people from getting too violent. and yes, they are getting violent. if this situation doesn't improve, my city's gonna be out of gas by the end of September(and that's if we're really lucky).

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moé in the streets, senpai in the sheets

I can only complain about gas prices so much. I've bitched and moaned about it for some time now. But it seems that's all we, the consumer, can do is just complain about it. Despite how much complaining there is, however, people will continue to buy. Why? Because people need to get places. And they always will. And we've all heard about the so-called "Nationwide Gas Boycott". But that won't do anything except change the day we get our gas. Also see the Snopes article on it. I can sit here and complain, but it's all the same. I plan to take action though. Right now, as of this evening, the price was staked at $2.74. I've decided that when it boils over to $3.00/gallon that I'll just stop getting gas. It's no rebellious boycott or act of anarchy. I just don't feel like paying that much for it. I fortunately live at this point in time where I can either walk to where I need to be or just mooch a ride.

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"When I turn the page
The corner bends into the perfect dog ear
As if the words knew I'd need them again
But at the time, I didn't see it."

~"This Ain't a Surfin' Movie" - Minus the Bear

Can't believe I didn't fill up this morning...It was $2.75 yesterday, this morning it was $2.99, now it's $3.29 in the span of a few hours!. Yuck, what a sack of crap. I remember thinking how bad it sucked when gas went up to $1.59 last summer...

My job this summer caused me to put around 7,500 miles on my car. The amount I've spent on gas to begin with is ridiculous (because of this, I don't have to pay taxes at least), but I couldn't afford it anymore. Glad I go back to college on monday. I made my last trip (60 miles there, 60 back) to Milwaukee today, unfortunately like I said by the time I got home gas prices had gone up another $.30. What can I say, this sucks...

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The clouds ran away, opened up the sky
And one by one I watched every constellation die
And there I was frozen, standing in my backyard
Face to face, eye to eye, staring at the last star
I should've known, walked all the way home
To find that she wasn't here, I'm still all alone

-Atmosphere "Always Coming Back Home to You"

It seems like Gas prices are only going to continue to go up from where they are too. It's really getting out of hand, worse yet, that there really isn't much we can do about it. Rather, not that there isn't anything we CAN do, just that there isn't anything we WILL do other than bitch, moan and occasionally let it go all the way to violence. Of course, that isn't helping us out at all.

I doubt anyone would listen to us standing on our cars yelling all day either, so we're in a pretty horrible situation. I'm one of the lucky few that still uses public transportation and manages to save god knows how much money in buying gas. It still effects me though, when bus drivers refuse to make their routes because of a gas shortage. When taxi's don't have enough fuel to go from place to place and when your friends don't have enough money to fill their tanks and go out.

Between this, all the natural disasters lately and all the fighting going on in the world, we're really starting to turn this planet into a nice little slice of heaven, aren't we.

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Okay, but there was a goat!

Well, let me be the almost mandatory first person to say, at least you aren't in Europe... I'm not gonna tell you to stop complaing about the high prices though becuase it IS getting a bit silly. Mind you,it's basically just been a series of events has caused this: market uncertainty possible sparked by the London bombings might have caused a little paranoia, that tiny little nugget of paranoia might have got worse with the fuss over the Iraqi constituion, then Hurricane Katrina messes with Gulf of Mexico oil production.

To illustrate how much worse it may get, for those of you unawares, if its $2.50 a gallon, that's 3.75 metric litres. Unleaded in the UK costs about 90p a litre... thats around $6.50 USD. And that was an old price. Admittedly, most of that is tax and company proft margins, and as a result, our prices seem to be a little more stable and don't have a heart attack when China waves it's economy at people.

Five years ago, in the UK, Truckers and those who worked in the long-haul industry, blockaded the refineries to try and convince the government to lower the taxation on it. It was called off after about a week, but at one point, there were plans to have the army cross the blockades and get the petrol moving again, under escort if need be. That's unlikely to occur int he US as popular support amongst the public will wane very, very quickly, and the governors will probably not hesitate to seek a loophole in the patriot act or something to send the National Guard to refineries.

So, you've had a lot of people moaning: we nearly had a civil uprising. And we still paid more then that you are paying now.

The most obvious ways to make it cheaper are: Walk. Use public transport. Ask yourslef if your car is truly needed? It won't do much overall when some asshat in the suburbs drives their kids to school which is at the end of the goddamned street in a Hummer then goes to the store at the OTHER end of the street in a routine that costs either 10 minutes of walking or 5 minutes of driving plus half a gallon of gas, but it will save you a little money long term.

As a small aside, Scottish Power are planning to build many, many wind trubines: which will put an EXCESS of power that cannot go onto the national grid at regular hours. They're looking at ways of using that spare power to electrolyse water to get hydrogen fuel for cars. I'm sure there are other plans out there far better developed, but any development's a development.

Also, give up booze and smoking. Not that either should be done driving or filling the tank up for obvious reasons. Can't see if there's smoke in your eyes and cars don't run on budweiser. Well, most cars don't. I hear Skoda's do but they're wierd.

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"Only the dead have seen the end of their quotes being misattributed to Plato."
-George Santayana

"The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here..."
-Abraham Lincoln, prior to the discovery of Irony.

Quote (Malevolence @ 31st August 2005 22:17)

in Atalnts, $5.50 to $6.00. ).

Those pumps actually got shut down. What they were doing is illegal seeing as most pumps in the area are still around the $3.00 range. So about $3 is a more accurate representation of gas prices in are area.

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"That Light has bestowed upon me the greatest black magic!"

Yesterday the regular gas at most stations in my neck o' the woods was nearly $3.00. This morning, it's up to over $4.00 some places, over $5.00 at others. I didn't have time to fill up while I was out, as the lines were awfully long and the wait time was just under an hour, not to mention a National Guard unit was keeping watch, allowing only two cars in at a time between four pumps. I haven't a clue why THAT was necessary...probably 'cause it wasn't. During the energy crisis in the 70's things were much worse off and apparently even then they got by just fine with a few of the station employees monitering things far more leniently. Ridiculous.

I really had to kick myself last night when I discovered ALL the gas stations in this area were outta gas - even premium and diesel fuel. They reopened this morning with 'bout half the regular amount. Luckily the latest price hike should drop a bit over the next few days. Sure, it's not like we can make use of the emergency stockpile or anything. That would only be, I dunno, convenient? But last I heard it was still being stated that it's "too early" to do so, so I'd like to know just how bad it has to get. But there's really nothing common folk can do, so what else is there but to bitch?

Unfortunately, I live in an area where just about all you CAN do to get around is drive, else I'd resort to cheaper methods. If I lived within the city limits I could use public transportation, if desperate enough, or even walk. 'Round here, well, crosswalks don't exist for a reason...

Although I'm aware it's higher in other parts of the country as well as the world, those who can't afford to fill up can't afford it all the same. Before long I'll be driving my neighbor's kid's Power Wheels to work.

Edit

As a side note, the nearest store - a gas station, aptly enough - is over 45 minutes of walking distance from my house. In order to get to work, I'd likely have to camp overnight on the side of the road if I was to walk, taking care not to get me and my tent hit by a five-car collision on the interstate. To reach a point where public transportation is possible, I'd have to journey even farther than that. Even the nearest grocery store would take more than two hours on foot to reach. If I still had my bicycle, I would try it, but I admit I'd be a bit paranoid given that there's a high accident and death rate for cyclists in my area. Drivers here just don't care enough to be cautious, and the roads are hardly wide enough for a bike to stay at the side without either swerving in front of a car at some point or going off the road completely. Plus nobody carpools; everyone in my neighborhood either has a two-seated truck (one guy, actually, and makes full work use of the bed) or own tiny cars like mine. I hate my car (really, it's terrible), but it's my only option. Like Tidu-who said below, it is common for people living far outside cities and suburbs to have quite a few transporation limitations.

This post has been edited by SilverFork on 1st September 2005 18:50

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Words of Wisdom:

If something can go wrong, it will.

If anything simply cannot go wrong, it will anyway.

If there is a possibility of several things going wrong, the one that will cause the most damage will be the one to go wrong. - Murphy’s Law

Boing! Zoom! - Mr. Saturn

Public Transportation is fine, if you live in or near a city. But the problem is America is SO spread out, you can't help but drive. I have nothing in my little town but a little Quik E Mart type place, a small bank, and a haircut place. I have to drive 15 minutes to get to a real store. Thankfully I did all my back to school shopping last week. I plain and simple can't function without a car, because frankly I have no alternatives. I'm sure this is the same for the vast majority of people (outside of cities). All I can do is take fewer, and shorter trips.

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The clouds ran away, opened up the sky
And one by one I watched every constellation die
And there I was frozen, standing in my backyard
Face to face, eye to eye, staring at the last star
I should've known, walked all the way home
To find that she wasn't here, I'm still all alone

-Atmosphere "Always Coming Back Home to You"

Quote (SilverFork @ 1st September 2005 11:20)

Sure, it's not like we can make use of the emergency stockpile or anything. That would only be, I dunno, convenient? But last I heard it was still being stated that it's "too early" to do so, so I'd like to know just how bad it has to get. But there's really nothing common folk can do, so what else is there but to bitch?

AFAIK, the stockpile being released is mostly if not all crude petroleum. Meaning it has to be refined for gasoline, and most American refineries are up some sort of fecal creek without a paddle at the moment (and sadly, in some cases you can take that quite literally).

In terms of gas prices, Westchester folks like me bought at $2.97 if they were lucky yesterday afternoon. Today, in Greenwich, CT, it's $3.35, so I'm guessing about $3.25 in my part of NY at the moment. My parents are on the way out here to visit, and they paid $3.25 in Champaign-bloody-Illinois this morning. A place that only broke a dollar a gallon maybe three times when I was living there for school four years ago.



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"To create something great, you need the means to make a lot of really bad crap." - Kevin Kelly

Why aren't you shopping AmaCoN?

Quote

AFAIK, the stockpile being released is mostly if not all crude petroleum. Meaning it has to be refined for gasoline, and most American refineries are up some sort of fecal creek without a paddle at the moment (and sadly, in some cases you can take that quite literally).

I'm aware of that, but shoulda clarified. They were debating on whether or not to use it prior to Katrina just to lower the already high prices. To me, they didn't sound like they were seriously considering it, but it'd be nice, and helpful, if they did.

Though they'll clearly have to wait that extra week or so for workers to return and to de-sh, err, de-sludge the places.

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Words of Wisdom:

If something can go wrong, it will.

If anything simply cannot go wrong, it will anyway.

If there is a possibility of several things going wrong, the one that will cause the most damage will be the one to go wrong. - Murphy’s Law

Boing! Zoom! - Mr. Saturn

My old man mentionned a story recently about a couple who converted their car to run on used frying oil. Motor ran fine, and it was practically cost-free (snack bars have to actually pay to dispose of used oil, so they were happy to deal with this.) Dunno if it's true, but it makes you wonder just how hard converting a motor to use some other substance as fuel would be.

The "in" thing around here is a small, compact car called a "smart car." They're 2-place vehicules which have an electric motor that kicks in to conserve fuel. I'm not sure how it works exactly, but I think it just maintains the car's speed when you're not accelerating, or is used for lower speeds. Either way, it saves a fortune on gasoline. That, too, makes you wonder wether electric cars are really all that hard to make.

Well, work's only an hour away for me (gonna be about a half hour away next week) so I don't really care. If I'd be so lazy as to be unable to stretch out those two doodads that come out of my hips and take them on a 50-60 minute walk to work, then I'd feel SEVERELY enclined to make SERIOUS changes to my life. Less than an hour is a short walk and costs $0.00 in gas. And hey, that's only 15-20 minutes by bike. Another free and easily-accessible means of transporting oneself from one place to another. Higher prices mean less people on the streets, for all I care.

I do feel for the people who have to work out of town though. But to my fellow montrealers who take their car to work when they're a few dozen minutes away? Serves you right, lazy.

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"Judge not a man by his thoughts and words, but by
the quality and quantity of liquor in his possession
and the likelyhood of him sharing."

I'm kinda boned cause I have a commute that's 160 round every day. I'm pretty much being force to fill up every other day. Bout the only thing I can really do is sell my car and buy a motorcycle. I'll try another month, but if gas prices don't come down, then I'll tell my employers I'm either working from home or for someone else.

Oh and here's a nice website I heard about on the radio that you guys might want to take a look at:

http://www.gaspricewatch.com/

Basically a google for gas. Tells you the cheapest stations nearest to where you are.

This post has been edited by Narratorway on 1st September 2005 21:07

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Arts

Farts

Twarts

Quote (Silverlance @ 1st September 2005 16:55)

The "in" thing around here is a small, compact car called a "smart car." They're 2-place vehicules which have an electric motor that kicks in to conserve fuel. I'm not sure how it works exactly, but I think it just maintains the car's speed when you're not accelerating, or is used for lower speeds. Either way, it saves a fortune on gasoline. That, too, makes you wonder wether electric cars are really all that hard to make.

http://www.toyota.com/prius/features.html

This is pretty much the same concept as the Smart Car, just applied to a larger, more functional vehicle. Toyota is currently the gold standard for Hybrid Automobile Technology, so much so that Nissan has given in and is just going to license Toyota's tech for new hybrid cars.

A bit of an aside, though I wish I could have gotten my hands on one when I'd bought my Corolla to avoid at least some of this gas silliness.

This post has been edited by Rangers51 on 1st September 2005 21:10

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"To create something great, you need the means to make a lot of really bad crap." - Kevin Kelly

Why aren't you shopping AmaCoN?

As it is, my parents just recently moved to Utah, so I'm living on my own and therefore, I definitely cannot afford any more increases in gas. Right now we're just over $3/gal, but I'm beginning to dust off my bike

Back about 8 or so years ago, in south Florida, gas hovered pretty constantly around US$1.00 a gallon. The cheapest locally was at this "JOY" station, which charged 87 cents per gallon.

Most recently, I took a look at the prices at a station in Manchester, Connecticut. US$2.79 for a gallon of unleaded gasoline; US$2.99 for a gallon of premium/93-octane gasoline. Not that I hadn't seen the gradual (or, at many times, rather rapid) rise of gasoline prices, but I started to compare the two.

Okay, inflation has occured. But that doesn't account for nearly three-fold increases in gas prices on the US dollar. Even a typical, built-within-the-last-two-decades-or-so house in the real estate market is said to double its value over 10 years. And that already includes realtors everywhere driving up prices in order to make more commission.

Even though I don't yet have a driver's license, I'm still incensed by gas prices. Problem is, I don't quite have a target to blame. Katrina? Terrorism? US foreign policy? Oil companies? Saudi Arabia? What?

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Check the "What games are you playing at the moment?" thread for updates on what I've been playing.

You can find me on the Fediverse! I use Mastodon, where I am @[email protected] ( https://sakurajima.moe/@glennmagusharvey )

You can blame the millions of people driving around alone in their 10 mile per gallon SUVs and pickups and minivans that they don't even need, but want because they are too lazy to walk to the grocery store 2 blocks away. it's the demand that is the true culprit of price.

but then again, as a resident of alberta, i should be grateful of the gas-guzzling pigs becuase now our province has a $9 billion surplus from gas revenue this fiscal year

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The first duty in life is to assume a pose,
and the second duty is...well, no one's found out yet.

Some places in NY (Brooklyn, Long Island) are at just about $4.00 or more a gallon, and I hear it can go up to $5.00 or more if things don't improve. What a sad state to be in for car owners. I'm taking the damn train until this is cleared up.

Quote (Silverlance @ 1st September 2005 15:55)

The "in" thing around here is a small, compact car called a "smart car." They're 2-place vehicules which have an electric motor that kicks in to conserve fuel. I'm not sure how it works exactly, but I think it just maintains the car's speed when you're not accelerating, or is used for lower speeds. Either way, it saves a fortune on gasoline. That, too, makes you wonder wether electric cars are really all that hard to make.

From the looks of the whole situations, I'd say buying a hybrid car will become less of an an "in" thing and more of a "must" thing in the coming years. Sure, the gas prices are jumping whole dollars suddenly, but it's not like we didn't expect them to. If and when the return to their usual price, we'll still be dropping 35-40 bucks a tank, which is still insane looking at how often we drive our cars and how fast they eat up that gas. I saw an H2 parked outside of my school just two days ago. An H2. Some freak is still driving that gas guzzler around in all this. The next car my family purchases will be one with hybrid technology, without fail.

This post has been edited by Kappa the Imp on 3rd September 2005 15:03

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I find your lack of faith disturbing...

I paid 2.99 per gallon the other day when I filled up. No one here has been fighting over gas but the prices are still pretty scary. I currently commute about 75 miles to work and I have to fill up every other day. I'm spending between 250-300 dollars on gas per month. I've been trying to save money to get a place in the town I work but I've been getting flat tires, tickets, paying rent to my mom, and other irrirating things that are preventing me from saving.

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Elena Indurain

Currently Playing: Suikoden II

Quote (Rubicant)

I'm taking the damn train until this is cleared up.

Problem is, though, for the vast majority of us living in Suburbia, USA, that doesn't work. Taxis don't go there either (and they'd just jack up their prices anyways to offset cost). Bikes are possible, but not suitable or long-distance travel.

Oh, what a car-dependent country we've become.

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Check the "What games are you playing at the moment?" thread for updates on what I've been playing.

You can find me on the Fediverse! I use Mastodon, where I am @[email protected] ( https://sakurajima.moe/@glennmagusharvey )

Quote (Silverlance @ 1st September 2005 15:55)

My old man mentionned a story recently about a couple who converted their car to run on used frying oil. Motor ran fine, and it was practically cost-free (snack bars have to actually pay to dispose of used oil, so they were happy to deal with this.) Dunno if it's true, but it makes you wonder just how hard converting a motor to use some other substance as fuel would be.

There's actually a gas station not too far from where I live (a county or so over) that features fuel made from vegetable oil. Last I heard, all they've managed to make so far is diesel, but it's cheap, burns cleaner and powers just as well as gasoline. Perhaps this'll be the next "big" thing in auto fuel once/if they're able to convert it to all types.

Course, gettin' it to catch on would be the problem...

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Words of Wisdom:

If something can go wrong, it will.

If anything simply cannot go wrong, it will anyway.

If there is a possibility of several things going wrong, the one that will cause the most damage will be the one to go wrong. - Murphy’s Law

Boing! Zoom! - Mr. Saturn

I'm guessing that the more and more gas prices rise, the more and more bike riders, such as meself, will become the objects of envy . Heck, this is quite the fat country we Americans live in, anyway. I say we should all ride bikes (if possible, of course)! I'm sure many of us could use the exercise as well as the extra cash. I know I'm putting me extra money to better use .

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Console RPG Cliches

Quote (Galsic)

I say we should all ride bikes

Does anyone know how hard or easy it is to learn to bike? I remember that when I was young, I was too scared since I had to balance nearly on one thin line, so I never learned.

When I was vacationing in China, though, I saw that tricycles were actual commonly-used vehicles, though, as opposed to the US, where 'tricycle' conjures up this ludicrous image of a little red trike with ribbons on the sides of the handlebars. I'd so definitely ride a trike if I ever got a (real, full-size) one...though I don't know how or where to store it.

On the other hand, this gas squeeze comes at a time when I'm personally starting to learn how to drive. How lucky I am. The other day, as I was driving them around time, my parents joked that I had to wait until gas prices were shooting through the roof (or maybe even floor after floor above the ceiling) to drive around to no actual destination for practice.

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Check the "What games are you playing at the moment?" thread for updates on what I've been playing.

You can find me on the Fediverse! I use Mastodon, where I am @[email protected] ( https://sakurajima.moe/@glennmagusharvey )

Prices range between 3.09 to 3.59 here in Franklin, NC.

Around half of the stations in my town are out of gas entirely, though.

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Join the Army, see the world, meet interesting people - and kill them.

~Pacifist Badge, 1978

Something I think that is kind of stupid is that currently it is cheaper for me to buy gas in the US than in Canada. Being a Canadian I have to use the metric system when dealing with well... everything so that being the case its $1.30 more or less (probably more) per litre which is a little less than 1/4 of a gallon. So doing a big of math it comes to around $5.20 for 4 litres.

Now since its $3.00 or so a gallon US then it should be about $3.50 Canadian money.

So for the same amount of gas it costs at least $1.50 more here.

Pretty bad eh?

This post has been edited by Loose_Hair on 8th September 2005 16:14

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Life is not a practice, always play to win.
I buried Ponce.

Go figuer about that . Its about 3.25 around Chesterfield, a county near Richmond VA. I guess that's pretty cheap nowadays. Remember when we complained about gas being 1.30/gallon. I don't drive yet, but when I do, it will suck if I have a gas guzzling car.

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Dead Winter. A nice comic.

Quote (Barrylocke @ 8th September 2005 11:20)

Remember when we complained about gas being 1.30/gallon. I don't drive yet, but when I do, it will suck if I have a gas guzzling car.

Is there any reason why ye would need to drive a gas guzzler? I find that, in most cases, people drive those things soley as status symbols and, really, it's jest a waste of gas, which makes no sense at any time much less now. Silly, silly, silly if ye ask me.

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Console RPG Cliches

Sometimes... particularly when one is getting a first car, and is at the mercy of their own (or their parents') budget, a "gas guzzler" may be the only affordable option.

See, gas guzzlers aren't just the monstrosities that soccer moms and guys with no hair and lots of money drive..... older small cars (think 70's and 80's make and model) are often times just as bad on gas as modern day SUV's and king size trucks. For a first car, lots of young people have to settle for something a decade or so older, thus they are kindof forced into driving a gas drinking behemoth.

This post has been edited by Hamedo on 8th September 2005 17:26

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Join the Army, see the world, meet interesting people - and kill them.

~Pacifist Badge, 1978

Sorry, but somehow, that doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me, either. If I can barely afford the price of an el cheapo gas guzzler, how am I going to afford the gas it guzzles, particularly now? I'd sooner get a loan to buy a newer, more dependable car and make reasonable monthly payments than buy something that'll cost hundreds, if not thousands, more in maintenance in the long run and probably break down on a regular basis, anyway . How this is not possible for most everyone is beyond me...

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Console RPG Cliches

You're parents must have money to burn. *jk*

My first car cost 1000 dollars, and drank gas like Bugs drank carrot juice. At 16, I was NOT about to take out a loan of several thousands of dollars on a car. Most people at that age don't have a job that can support a 200+ monthly payment, plus we've got college and other things to contend with coming up soon enough.

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Join the Army, see the world, meet interesting people - and kill them.

~Pacifist Badge, 1978