That's it, I'm walking. gas up 33 cents since Monday, - Page 74

Cheap and bad/good are relative terms. 

 

We always seem to be reminded how 'good' and 'cheap' we've got it here in the US.  And how Europe is better because of it's mass transit system....

 

Leaving aside government type for a moment, a little perspective is in order - Germany is about the size of Montana.  Around 81.88 million people vs. less than 1 million.  Of course mass transit makes economical sense- that's a lot of people in a smaller space.  That's what a lot of people miss - other than the coasts, the United States is not densely populated, but is much larger than many European countries. 

 

I routinely travel 100 miles a day to and from work.  I have almost no option other than to drive myself.  But, if the right people could be convinced, we have the technology that I could telecommute most of the time.  That idea needs to be pushed as much as possible.

 

 

The problem is that mass transit is shoddy even where the population is dense in the US--and that will not change with current fuel taxes.

"The problem is that mass transit is shoddy even where the population is dense in the US--and that will not change with current fuel taxes."

 

I use mass transit in Los Angeles and I can get just about anywhere in the county with two buses -- three at the most.  That's not shoddy at all.  

Same here in Atlanta. I rarely use my car. Of course my neighborhood is made for walking. Everything I need is within walking distance.

Gas is almost exactly 80 cents more per gallon where I live than it was a year ago...this sucks...

 

 

The availability of subways, commuter trains and buses in many European cities at night and on weekends is a lot better than anything I've seen in most places in the US. But I should have been more precise in my comment as I also meant intercity transit, chiefly by train. It should be a lot more convenient to travel anywhere from New England to Chicago and anywhere else east of the Mississippi by train than it is today. Perhaps rail travel will make a comeback when fuel prices burst through the 5$/gal. ceiling and stay there. Who knows?

I've lived in L.A. since 1991 and I know the local buses well, to get from work and back, but I only live 2 miles from work. If I wanted to get around the city it is far less intuitive than it should be (requiring a lot of research online to get the various bus schedules because I'd need to take two or three different bus companies: Santa Monica Blue Bus, MTA and/or Culver City bus.

 

It's nowhere near as intuitive as, say, the metro or subway in some major cities (especially NYC). It took me about 15 minutes to get used to the NYC subway when I visited and I could get anywhere I needed to go on it without much thought. LA's system needs to be as user-friendly as that for novices and part-time riders. I know a few people like Don who know use the buses all the time and know most of the maps by heart, but they've been riding it forever, and most people I know who are first-time or infrequent users don't even know where to begin...

Gas prices had settled at $3.69 in my area for a couple of weeks.

 

Then, $3.71 a few days ago, $3.75 the next day, and then when I drove to work yesterday it was $3.75 in the morning and when I drove home it had jumped 12-cents to $3.87!

This weekend I was on a lower stretch of the NY Thruway and breezing past one of the service plazas I thought I saw out of the corner of my eye the price $4.34.  This evening on Route 7 in CT where you do not want to find yourself out of gas, it was $4.16, with diesel over $4.30.  (I don't attention to diesel; just happened to notice it.)

I'm always impressed by the DC metro when I'm a tourist; it's even easier now there's an "app for that", determining schedule and transfers after you've selected your start and end stations. I assume it's good for the daily commuter, too.

 

 

 

I think the transfers are free.

I agree with Carlo that LA's system needs to be more user friendly.  But it does cover an enormous area and links with several other systems.  I can get from Santa Monica to Disneyland around 50 miles away with two buses and pay under $4.  

 

Unfortunately, I can't claim to know the system as well as he thinks.  If I'm traveling to some area that I'm unfamiliar with, I use their trip planner online and take notes on bus numbers, times, stops, etc.  Fortunately, the subway stations and rapid stops have large system maps available. 

 

@Sumnernor, the Metro buses no longer offer transfers (although the subway does); if you're going to be riding a lot, it's best to buy a Tap card (I think it was a dollar) and buy a day pass ($6, which is equivalent to four rides).  Some of the bus systems (like Santa Monica's Big Blue Bus) still offer transfers for a low fee.  

$4.29 in western suburbs of Chicago.

 

I would like to find me some gas speculators, tie them to a chair, pour $4.29 of gas on them, wave a lighter and tell them to start speculating gas will drop to .99 by mid summer...

 

But seriously, they say demand is high, but so many people are out of work so demand should be lower, right? Yeah, I know it doesn't work that way, but this is starting to piss me off. I'm just glad I only have to fill every two weeks or so.

The last time I filled up, I paid $3.999 a gallon. Right now, it's about $3.90 and diesel is $4.15.

I saw that the first post in this thread was from 2005 and gas was under $2.50 a gallon and the thread starter was complaining about that. I bet everyone here would love to pay that much now. On a similar note, when I cleaning out my garage last week, I found a gas station receipt from that time period, and I paid $2.369 a gallon then. I bet when I got that gas, I was complaining about how high it was then.

In high school (mid 1990's), I could fill up my car for about $12 and get a evening admission to the first run movie theater for under $5. Now, it would cost me about $50-$60 to do the same.

I have a couple of gas receipts from ca-1971 when friends and I first drove from Ohio to L.A. and were filling up VWs for three or four bucks a tank.  And yet, what's actually more shocking than that, for me, is looking back at what I was paying just ten years ago for the VW I'm driving now.

I liked it when gas was cheaper, but I can't get upset about it. I spent about $50 a week on gas. I spend more on lunch. The problem with gas is it's the one aspect of inflation we directly see; in some ways it's the only inflation many of us have seen in the past ten or twenty years. Well, except for soda in the vending machines ;)

$4.37/gallon in Southern California. I have a 2000 Altima which has a 15.9 gallon tank and gets about 25city/30hwy the way I drive (it's a manual transmission).

Today I crossed $60 for a fillup for the first time.

 

I would like to update this to $4.44.

 

I started to go off on a rant here but I clearly don't know what I'm talking about so I'm keeping my rant to myself.

I live in Germany and luckily don't need a car. Munich's transportation system is very good. Trains are great. It's possible to get to Vienna for circa 27 Euros /(circa $35). Back in the 60's, I bought a gallon of gas in Buffalo for 19 cents/gal. I guess now it is a bit more. The last time I calculated it, it was circa $8 or $9 / gallon here.

Amtrak has been having record ridership just about every year for the last decade, up to nearly 30.2 million passengers last year. The problem in the US is one of density; Germany's smaller than Montana with a population of over 80 Montanas. The Northeast and the coasts are dense enough to sustain a viable rail network. Most major cities are good candidates for light rail and commuter rail. The rest of the country is stuck with cars.

Yeah, I live in a fairly decent sized suburban area (rather than a rural area) but if I had to rely on a bus, I'd never get anywhere. Or rather, I'd never go anywhere because mass transit is completely impractical and unreliable.

Concerning gas prices, the Germans are also complaining about high gas prices. It is felt that the oil companies are responsible. Oil prices is not just a US problem.

I thought it would be fun to take Amtrak from DC to NYC. Initially checking the prices...ugh! As expensive as flying, no faster, no more convenient. I hope to find better results with more serious planning. But if this is the state of light-rail even in the Coast...no wonder it's failing.

My one experience with taking a train to get from Vermont to NYC was such a FUBAR fiasco, I doubt I'll ever travel anywhere by train again.

What's interesting is that this phenomenon doesn't just exist in the U.S. On my latest vacation to France (October 2011) I found that taking EasyJet [their version of Southwest, a no-frills airline] from Orly Airport in Paris to Nice Airport cost substantially less than taking the high speed rail, and cut travel time down from over half a day (with train changeover) to just over an hour.

I was really looking forward to taking high speed rail in Europe and enjoying the ride, but ended up just booking a flight instead.

I did some realistic checking on fares for a birthday trip to NYC and some Amtrak rates better than JetBlue. But (ironically?) my train plans are being thwarted by parking. Parking at Washington Union Station is $22/day (gulp). And there's no overnight parking at the metro out my way.

 

I'm around the corner, almost literally, from Dulles. And there's parking for under $10 / day. Flying may still be more expensive, but taking the train is not the no brainer I'd hoped.

 

 

We'll probably end up taking a bus (sigh). It's not romantic or interesting...but it's looking more affordable and comfortable than the trains, planes, and automobiles.

Sad thing is, my wife & I were doing a photo album this last week; and I found pictures of us near our old home, filling up to do a road trip.   1997.   Gas was 1.04 a gallon.   Blarg.

Yeah, yeah, and bread was a nickel and you walked uphill to and from school in the snow. Tell us another one old timer!

Seriously, just watch some of the movies from the 1990s, if they have outdoor city/road scenes. If a gas station is visible, be prepared to shake your head at the prices.

I always watch out for product prices in movies. I'm always amused by that stuff.

 

My wife and I took the train from Chicago to LA once and paid for a private cabin. Both fun and interminably boring at the same time. We enjoyed the scenery (and loved watching thunder and lightning over vast plains) but, with all the modern gadgetry found on airplanes I was sort of expecting something similar on the train. Not even an LCD screen in the corridor to tell you where you are. Just sitting there looking out the window for three days. We were both surprised at how good the food was, however. Fun, but we'd never do it again.