How to deal with high gasoline prices...

[johno]

Someone posted then deleted to one of the SF Bay Area communities a long how to boycott the big oil companies to force them to lower prices.

I made the following simple response, but found the post to be deleted when I attempted to save the comment:
***Edit to add: Note: simple, off the cuff, not completely thought out.
***Edit corrected a couple typo and mis-statements.


Having just spend over 2 weeks driving in the UK, $3 a gallon is not bad.

Try paying 80-95p a liter. ~3.20-3.80 pounds a gallon at $1.5-1.8 to a pound.

We were paying $4.80-6.80 a gallon.

30-40 pounds or $45-70 a fill-up


An even better response, cut your gas usage.


Use alternate forms of transit.

Public Transit.

Bike to work.


Drive a vehicle that gets high mileage per unit of gas/petrol.

Hybrids

Motorcycles

Mopeds/Scooters

Electric vehicles.

Turbo diesels.


Don't or cut back on your commute.

Work from Home/Telecommute at least day, or few, a week.

Work a compressed schedule: 4-10s or 9-80s
4 days a week-10 hours a day, 9 days per 2 weeks-9 hours a day

Change your schedule so you're not driving during rush hour.
Rush hour driving burns more fuel.

Comments

[succ33d.livejournal.com]

What about car pooling??

[karisu-sama.livejournal.com]

We don't drive much, we always "work from home". :p :p

[galtine1.livejournal.com]

In California, carpooling works if you aren't going to stray from your route very much to get the other people AND they work with you or in the same area.

I wish hubby and I could carpool. We own two Hybrids (Honda Civic and Ford Escape 4WD). He has the longer commute, so he drives the better one (Civic). If San Diego and CalTrans had been smart, there would have been more east-west high traffic routes put in years ago and we'd be carpooling on the days when neither of us has early/late commitments. But working nearly 40 minutes apart just doesn't make it worth the effort.

Now, we both have managers above us who live near us that we could carpool with, but that could be risky as these managers have hours that are different than either of ours (Jim works a late 10-6p shift/the manager is early. I work 8:30-5p and the manager is in by 7!).

And I won't even get on the topic of public transportation in this county.

[galtine1.livejournal.com]

I'm going to be heading back to work tomorrow (took extra days off for jetlag, a good thing), and will see how people are reacting to the current issue.

For me, I want to suggest 4/10s and see if I can get my butt up to be in the office by 7:30a, and :30 for lunch would get me on the road home at 6pm.

[the-fae-within.livejournal.com]

Luckily, the house we are buying is just a mile (one way) from the husband's work. We plan on getting a motorcyle for him to drive to work. We dont take many trips and the only time we really go out that we would need our vehicle is whenever we need groceries. We usually go out into groups if we are going out for the afternoon or whatever. Whenever gas started getting up to $2.20 a gallon, we started making sacrifices. We didn't need to take the weekend trip to get away, we didn't need to go out and drive whenever we got bored. Etc. People bitch before they think of how they actually can CHANGE things by doing some things that have been listed.

[shadowwalkyr.livejournal.com]

I don't understand. How does driving a high-mileage vehicle help?

[snmnstrz21.livejournal.com]

I think he means drive a vehicle that gets good gas milage. Meaning you can get a lot of miles on a small amount of gas.

[shadowwalkyr.livejournal.com]

That makes sense, thank you.

However, being a pedantic sort, such as I am, I feel compelled to point out that the term "high-mileage vehicle" is used to refer to one that has been driven more than fifty thousand miles.

[luna-torquill.livejournal.com]

But changing your lifestyle is hard. Can't we just talk about boycotts and feel good instead?

(Witness how many people fall off of diets. When reducing gas consumption is, in essence, a diet, it's no wonder we can't seem to cut down and exercise more.)

[eleri.livejournal.com]

When the 'don't bitch the UK pays more' argument has come up before, I have pointed out that the issue is not the total amount being paid, but the percentage of increase. Having something that you've budgeted for one amount suddenly jump by 50% is a severe blow to the pocket book, especially when you've already done all you realistically can to reduce.

[johno.livejournal.com]

Too bad I'm not a down to the guts programmer or I'd apply to work at your place. ;)

[johno.livejournal.com]

fixed.

[johno.livejournal.com]

As the world factors that "protected" us from the true cost of petrol fall away or change, I personally believe, $3 a gallon will be phycological barrier, but once broken would soon be only a memory..

[johno.livejournal.com]

Ooo, I like the implied {whine} your phrasing has. {grin}

[blackfyr.livejournal.com]

Public transportation only works when it's a reasonable cost alternative. When we compared the costs of lysana getting to work via public transit & via our 18mpg car, it was significantly less expensive for her to drive to work, especially as the best she could do on transit required two buses & a train, and the schedules sucked.

We'd like to use the motorcycle we have, but the cost of the mandatory repairs cause by an inconsiderate ex-neighbor have left that hiding under a bike cover for over a year now.

[bovil.livejournal.com]

I don't believe that it's possible to buy a new diesel car in CA anymore; even the best put out more soot than the clean-air regs allow.

I hear you

[capplor.livejournal.com]

If this had been going on gradually, at the rate of inflation, the cost may have been the same by now, or even more, but we'd have it budgeted for, and there'd have been enough demand to make hybrids & pure electrics cheaper by now.

I also point out that flexible hours & telecommutes only work on SOME kinds of jobs, and to the rest of us read like "Let them eat cake".

[drangnon.livejournal.com]

diesel is 3.09.

[jbriggs.livejournal.com]

And should be better now, having put on 4 new tires(tyres) this morning.

[gailg.livejournal.com]

I agree with everything you said, but it's my role in life to play the contrarian, so here goes...

Even if we all walked to work, we'd still be affected by high gas prices, since they are reflected in the products we buy.

But, as was mentioned by others, some of us just have to drive. When I chose my apartment, I realized that the one downside was that it was not convenient to public transportation, but all of the other aspects were strong enough to sway me to choose it anyway. I did, in the past school year, participate in a carpool (which also saved me a lot on parking since carpool parking permits are half-price), and I hope to do it again this year, but the catch is that I have to find someone else who wants to join me. I drive a Honda Civic, which gets good gas mileage, and it takes me about 15 minutes to get to campus. If I took public transportation, it would probably take me about 2 hours.

Now that I think of it, I guess this doesn't really contradict anything you said, since I'm doing what I can to cut down on driving. I guess my point is that some people have more options than others.

In any case, eventually high gas prices will affect bus fares, making public transportation a more expensive option, and probably also taxes, since the government has to run schoolbusses, senior shuttles, etc.

The advantages that the UK has are (1) no matter where you live, there are usually shops within walking distance, and (2) if you need to go somewhere that's too far to walk, it is almost always easy to take public transportation wherever you want to go. Oh, most of the cars are smaller and more efficient than the average car on the road in the US.