Posted on 08/16/2005 4:29:30 PM PDT by RockinRight
My motorcycle gets more than casual usage as well. If it ain't raining, that's what I take to work.
SUVs fault!
How 'bout them 40-foot motorhomes?
Well, we're just 20-cents shy, here in West Michigan, from the magic $3.00 a gallon with current prices at $2.80 a gallon.
Buy a more fuel efficient American made car, and you'd be spending the money here, instead of sending it to our Saudi (Friends?).
Problem is, nobody is like you. This is evidenced by the fact that one can drive around in any city in America during "work hours" and see millions upon millions of people driving around, who obviously don't work. Not to mention all that weekend traffic and late night traffic jams in CA..
This current high and rising prices of fuel is really puts a heavy burden upon the moderate to low income working middleclass who have to commute.
Let gasoline prices sit at the present level for a couple of weeks. All this alarm will drop off the radar.
You only drive your car about 8 miles a day?
Them too ;-)
Especially those whose only vehicle is a 5 yard dump truck.
One, the speed vs economy curve is different for every vehicle. That particular vehicle does best at 55mph and 25% worse at 75, but that doesn't mean every vehicle will.
Two, that graph is a textbook example of how to lie with statistics. The range begins at 15mpg, so a roughly 25% drop in real numbers (from 30 to 23 mpg) is represented by a roughly 50% drop on the graph (from 15 units above the X-axis to 8 units.)
Three, a 100 mile trip in this hypothetical car at 55mph and 30mpg takes 1 hour and 49 minutes and burns 3.3 gallons of gas. At 75mph and 23mpg the same trip takes 1 hour and 19 minutes and burns 4.3 gallons of gas. $2.50 of gas to save half a hour sitting in a cramped car is a good trade off to me.
Ugh....typo...about $7.50/DAY. About 3.5 gallons to go about 90 miles roundtrip, based on $2.50/gal gas. Only work that far 3 days a week. So $22.50/week. We use the van for local shopping, etc...we are 8 miles from town and don't go in every day if we can help it.
Sorry...was posting too fast.
No problem. I thought 8 miles a day pretty low. I only wish I could drive that little.
Three, a 100 mile trip in this hypothetical car at 55mph and 30mpg takes 1 hour and 49 minutes and burns 3.3 gallons of gas. At 75mph and 23mpg the same trip takes 1 hour and 19 minutes and burns 4.3 gallons of gas. $2.50 of gas to save half a hour sitting in a cramped car is a good trade off to me.
Another good point.
Of course for those working near minimum wage, "earning" $5.00/hour in gas savings isn't that bad. So it probably is worth to to them drive 55mph instead of 75mph to work.
But I'd also be interested in seeing what the increase in demand for gas does to the total price for gas. If everyone were to drive 55mph instead of 75mph, consumption would drop and the reduced demand for gas would lower the overall price per gallon so the savings would be greater.
Of course a single individual driving at 55mph would have little to no effect on prices, but a whole nation slowing down and reducing demand would.
In Toledo-local TV news tonight. Volunteers who deliver "meals on wheels" to the elderly & disabled may have to stop soon, as they have to buy their own gasoline. It's slowly beginning.
Gas is still relatively cheap in historical terms. That is one reason why the price is spiking up so much.
We can thank mostly the envirowackos for this scenario. They jump up and down, and hold their breath until they turn blue every time someone wants to build a refinery. They have cost this country millions of dollars in expensive and unnecessary regulations. We need to drill ANWR. We need to build refineries. We need to renovate existing refineries. We need to expand drilling off the coast of Florida and California. We need to put an end to the expensive summer blends that cause short term supply problems. We need to tell the envirowackos to stuff it.
There are plenty of alternatives.
Trade in the SUV for a more efficient car.
Cut back on road trips, take public transit more etc.
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