Posted on 08/22/2005 9:22:36 AM PDT by traumer
Some drivers are altering their routines, going out less, or even going to therapy as gas prices begin to strain family budgets.
South Florida drivers are cutting back on dining out, slowing down their driving and -- this is amazing -- even complaining to their therapists over rising gas prices.
''People are increasingly agitated,'' said Plantation psychologist Priscilla Marotta, who said she's seeing an increase in clients suffering panic attacks. ``They say they have no control over their budget. And they have to drive to work. They feel like their lives are spiraling out of control.''
This is South Florida, after all. We love our cars and we don't have a lot of other options for getting around. So we're tinkering with our routines -- in a few strange and unexpected ways -- hoping small changes will add up to big savings.
• If you see more tow trucks parked outside your neighborhood McDonald's, it's gas prices. Ron Self, owner of South Florida Towing and Transport, said he's begun telling his drivers to sit down and relax a while, when they're done with a call, rather than drive back to his offices in Perrine or Hialeah. ''Basically, we're trying to drive less or otherwise we're having to increase our prices and customers aren't really happy about that,'' he said.
• María Cárdenas, 29 and single, isn't going out to eat, spending money on clothes or doing as much shopping as she used to. The price of her 80-mile-a-day commute from home in West Kendall to work in Fort Lauderdale is holding her back. ''I'm feeling the impact,'' she said. ``It's adding up little by little.''
She's part of a three-car family with her mom and dad. Total family gasoline bill: $131 a week.
• Michael Bullard, 57, isn't dropping in on an elderly friend in a nursing home as often as he used to, because of gas prices. He's making fewer trips from his home in Pompano Beach to his church in Boca Raton. He's coordinating his errands to make fewer trips. As a result, he has reduced his three fill-ups a week to two.
But the biggest change he has made is the hardest. He's driving slower.
Bullard has turned his cruise control down from 70 miles per hour to 60. Now you might catch his 1999 Lincoln Continental in the far-right lane, with truckers rushing past. He made the change to steady his driving and make the car more fuel-efficient.
''I don't know if I'll be able to keep it up. It's hard to be out on the road and not to want to speed up,'' he admits.
Such trade-offs may be difficult, but when prices per gallon jump 18 cents in only a week, more and more people feel they must do something -- and quick.
Traditional solutions to lowering costs are gaining ground, too. Almost 6 percent more people in Broward are taking the bus than last year. A spokesman for Miami-Dade County Transit reports that Park N Ride lots were far more crowded last week.
CHOOSING TO CARPOOL
More people are carpooling -- or at least checking out how to do it. ''We have probably quadrupled since the beginning of the year in the number of people who have requested to find ride matches and alternate modes of transportation to commute to work,'' said James Udvardy, project director of South Florida Commuter Services.
But the numbers are still small.
Only a fraction of South Floridians ever board a bus or a train. Just 4 percent of Miami-Dade and Broward workers take public transportation and only 11 percent carpool, according to 2003 U.S. Census data. That's despite a recent survey showing the average commuter who drives to work in the Miami metropolitan area spends 51 hours a year stuck in traffic.
And drivers still love those gas-guzzling SUVs. Nationwide, SUV sales were falling all year until GM and other manufacturers offered discounts. Buyers jumped, despite steep gas prices, and pushed SUV sales up in July.
LIFESTYLE CHANGES
If gas prices stay high -- as they are expected to do -- one expert in finance and behavior says drivers will eventually be forced to make some major changes in lifestyle.
''There are some people who, in deciding whether to buy a house or rent an apartment that is a long way from work, will change their decisions because of high gas prices,'' Jay Ritter, the Cordell professor of finance at the University of Florida's School of Business Administration, wrote in an e-mail. Ritter is also an associate editor of The Journal of Behavioral Finance.
Some, he predicts, will turn down a job and take a slightly lower-paying one to save on the commuting costs. ''These decisions accumulate over time,'' he wrote. ``So they have very little short-run impact, but they have a moderate impact over the long run.''
The turning point may not be far off.
NEAR CRISIS POINT
In surveys earlier this year, the Gallup Poll pinpointed $2.50 to $3 a gallon as the range many consumers considered a crisis point.
We hit that range last week, and we're breaking through it.
Gas prices reached $2.57 in Fort Lauderdale and $2.65 in Miami on average for a gallon of regular. Which means, $3 a gallon is in sight.
''That's a concern that I have,'' Cárdenas, the Kendall-to-Fort Lauderdale commuter who fills up twice a week, said.
``You know, you budget a certain amount of money a month for expenses, what you have left over gets smaller and smaller.''
Your Mom is a smart woman.
The thing is I am in therapy because I have a phobia about being in a room with more than two people [ stems from gas problems] and my shink is having group meetings.
What should I do?
A good therapist won't go below $90 an hour !
THe good news is you can ride a bike to one....
and yet the democrats have SUCKERD the federal govenment out of mass transit money that all three south florida counties ADMIT! will do NOTHING to lower congestion.
They think agrivation will push people onto UNSAFE AND UNSECURED light rail and trains. Hmmmm sitting next to a smelly stranger stuck in traffic Orrrrr stuck in traffic in my own vehicle eating in comfort.
How does this effect those people that currently have these huge commutes, but don't have the money to move closer to their jobs?
Texas and Louisiana have some of the very best sport-fishing, both inland waters and offshore!
Offshore drilling in the GulfofMexico is high-tech these days and all adhere to zero-discharge of pollutants and waste.
Try instead $67.00 divided by 42 gallons- $1.59/gallon. Federal tax is 18.4 cents per gallon. State and local taxes vary of course.
lifestyle change or job change
Somehow, I just don't think it's as easy as that. People living 50, 60 or 80 miles from their jobs, a lot of times, don't live where their are jobs paying the same. If people already have budget problems, then a lower paying job, won't help much.
"Well, Doc, last night I dreamt my mother bought a Shell station"...
Exactly what I was thinking. Hmmmmm, I wonder what they could cut out to save money for gas...
Live goes on.....Most people can't tell you the exact year we had the energy crises in the 70's. We we thought we were all going to die becase gas was no longer $.27.
like I said, lifestyle change or job change
long commutes will become unpopular, especially for those w/ low paying jobs
I guess foreclosures and bankruptcies will be on the increase. Too bad they just made it harder to declare bankruptcy.
If prices don't change soon, Bush is going to have to at least address this, if for no other reason than for the sake of whomever follows him as a Republican presidential candidate.
"Ya gotta help me, doc! I'm having that dream again--where the Arabs chase me on camels that look like my old station wagon, and Jimmy Carter keeps blocking my path wearing leather and carrying a bullwhip..."
I don't think it's the 70mph that's causing his problems; how about the '99 Lincoln Continental. Let's assume he drives twice the annual mileage of the average driver. And let's assume that slowing from 70 to 60 gets him an extra 2 mpg. And let's assume he now spends all his time driving 60mph instead of 70mph. Congratulations, you're saving about $4 a week. If $4/week seriously affects your budget then you shouldn't be driving a Lincoln, or drinking those lattes, or smoking those cigarettes, or watching that cable tv, or....
This fellow, and most of the panic filled cases described in the article, definitely has problems. But even gasoline at $1/gallon won't fix those problems.
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