Gasoline may be cheaper than many of the other liquids I buy and consume, but I don't don't drink 15 gallons of milk, orange juice, or mineral water a week.

And your car doesn't run on Frappucinos...

The reason we have generally crappy public transit is more complicated than our relatively cheap gas. It has a lot more to do with the fact that we live in a vast, lightly populated country. Our older, dense cities (NY), have relatively good public transport, but you couldn't possibly duplicate that in the newer, more spread out cities, even if gas were 10 times more expensive.

The time to worry about this was the 30s and 40s when we started tearing up our street car systems and "replacing" them with buses. Which led to people buying cars, then moving out to distant suburbs. There was likely nothing that could have been done about it then, and it's far too late to change now.

You're not going to build effective rail systems out to all the far-flung suburbs, and you can't abandon 3/4 of the nation's housing stock. What you'll see (and are seeing) is businesses relocating to the suburbs, where the people are. People commuting into city centers to work is by and large going to die out. Most American businesses require nothing more than open plan office space and cube walls, so they are very easy to move. It's not like moving an auto assembly plant.

And you shouldn't be using 15 gallons of gas per week. Try walking, cycling and public transit. Move closer to work. Be creative. I know you can do what it takes to get your gas consumption down to one gallon a week.

Hey there! Thanks for your link! I am a woman, though!

LA: My apologies and I have fixed the reference.

Gas is cheap. I can pay under $5 to move myself and 2 tons of metal a 30-mile distance in around a half hour! How can you beat that? Add in that I could take 4 other people with me (for maybe a 25 mile distance) and wow are we talking cheap!

I'd probably pay upwards of $10 to accomplish the same task!

My predictions on how much gasoline will rise and fall have been pretty pathetic. But I'm going to give it another go. Barring any real disruptions (as opposed to manufactured ones) it will increase until well after the summer driving season starts, but will stabilize and gently decrease as it gets closer to the election.

I think that by this time next year it'll average around $4 a gallon.

@ high5apparatus

You can have a good Public Transportation system in newer cities. Dallas, TX is a great example of a pretty good Public Trans. Sure the trains don't pick people up at their doorsteps, but you can usually get anywhere in the city in under 40 minutes with by taking a bus to the station, a train to the other side of town, and then a bus to the doorstep of your office.

Public Trans is great and Cheap. Just most people don't know how convenient it really is.

Gas is the equivalent of USD 4.95 over here in Australia at the moment and inching upward, and it Europe it would be even more; so yeh - it's still pretty cheap over there.

Gasoline is so cheap because it contains far too much energy for the price. Please check this because it came out lower than something I read in Time, I think it was, last year. With gasoline at $4/gal, using it's energy content, some conversions and the assumption that a person is about 1/4 as powerful as a horse, I figure buying gasoline is like buying manual labor at $0.02/person*hour! And this labor is available day or night in all weather and on holidays, what a deal!

Oh good, if the fuckers at Treehugger think gas is so cheap then start paying to fill up my car.

There was likely nothing that could have been done about it then, and it's far too late to change now.

Oh? And what will happen when gas stations start to run dry?

Well, change will happen of course. It can happen now, spearheaded by some thoughtful individuals who decide that gas isn't getting any cheaper and that perhaps a townhouse in the city would be a better idea, or it can happen later, in a bloody revolution whereby suburbanites start dying of starvation because they can't get enough gas to go to work anymore.

It reminds me of a story I once heard. That eagles and chickens used to soar together. But one day, a farmer started offering them free food. The chicken said to the eagle "hey, that's a sweet deal. Free food! I just have to hang around with the farmer all day". The eagle said "ah, no thanks, I like the exercise too much," and decided to live on his own.

A year later, the farmer came to kill the chicken. And the chicken tried to fly away, but found that he had grown too fat to fly.

Heh... the internets...

Isn't the article about $9.38 premium gas just a bit expensive :)

Actually, I am thrilled because my work started a ride share program so I only have to drive to work 1 day a week :)

While I generally agree with this article, it is a LOT more complicated than that

Gasoline is RIDICULOUSLY cheap in the US... The ONLY way to wean N Americans off their insane vehicle addiction is to tax fuel at reasonable levels. It has worked in Europe; almost all of our vehicles give better levels of economy and we have an excellent inexpensive high-speed rail network.. (well everywhere other than Britain of course!) For fuel price comparisons see:
http://www.economist.com/images/ga/2007w27/Petrol.jpg

Hey Doug,
buy an economical car and do some walking!

Hey ecobore, I own a Honda Insight. So try thinking before you say something stupid.

Well Doug, you should do the same - think before you say something stupid. Stick the phrase "the fuckers at Treehugger" into a comment and you don't expect to get flamed back?

This is the exact reason I changed my user name here (and on the forums) to what it is now so there would be no confusion...

Its been estimated that a gallon of gas is about 30,000 calories of energy, so theres no way a 1000 calorie starbucks drink is even close. you try carrying 2 tons of steal and 4 people 20 miles and only drinking a starbucks drink.

I have been hearing about using turning water into burnable fuel in order to make any car a hybrid, but I do not actually know of anyone who has done this. Does it work?

It costs a lot more than the $3.50 a gallon to drive your car the average 20 miles you get. Even if you have a hybrid or other fuel efficient car, you're still making car payments, insurance, maintenance, and possibly parking fees. People don't seem to consider those things when they talk about how "reasonable" gas prices are. Filling your tank is only one (large) part of the expense.

For instance: If you pay $3.50 per gallon, and use a modest 15 gallons per week, that's an annual expense of about $2730. But $1000 for insurance, $1000 for maintenance, and $3000 for payments ($250/month), and all of a sudden it's more like $9.90 per gallon. Or put another way, you're spending almost $650 per month on your car. And these are all incredibly modest estimates.

It's cheaper to take the bus. Not an option for many, but still...

Maybe if car fuel efficiency wasn't still at turn of the century (last century!) levels you wouldn't need to burn 15 gallons of gas a week - more like 1 gallon (or even 10 would be a start). That would bring prices down to a fraction of current levels and we could all stop thinking about how to design an engine that runs on carbs from happy cappy frappucinos. Remember on 1% of the energy in that 15 gallons of gas actually goes to moving your mass along its path, the rest is conspicuous consumption.

@Rae Torres:

I hope that you're being facetious. (If you are, disregard the following:)

You cannot burn water. Think about it for at least half a second and you'll realize this. What happens when you heat water? It may eventually turn to steam, but you're putting ALOT of energy into it, so I'd imagine that steam power is only about 30% efficient. I mean, duh?

@All:

If there was a bus that went by my house without having to walk 45 minutes, I'd consider it. (I'm from Reno, Nevada.) If you think I'm lazy and unfit, I play soccer several times a week, so that's not the issue. 45 minutes everyday * at least 5 days a week, every week of the year will add up quick. (An easy 8 days of walking per year. And if you were working during even half an hour at $9.00/hr, you'd be losing $1,755 per year.) Also, I enjoy the freedom of driving. I can't afford buying a new car at this point and drive a car that gets TERRIBLE gas mileage (about 16mpg, due to a cracked exhaust manifold.) Capital costs > annual savings at this point.

Anyways, the point is that I'm a drop in the bucket without the government (local, state or federal) expanding the transportation infrastructure OR stop taxing a gallon of gas so heavily for unrelated things. IE: gas tax to schools? Wtf? That's not how it should be...

Oh well, flame on.

1 gallon a week!? So in my car, that tank of gas is supposed to last 3 months. HA! I was delighted to get three weeks out of my last tank - that was with pretty extensive biking and carpooling.

Mr. Campbell, that may work very well for you - perhaps you live in an urban area, probably one with very good public transit. But in my neck of the woods, "try hard" isn't gonna cut it. Now lest you think I'm not trying...
* We bought a home that's less than 7 miles from my workplace and 10 miles from my husband's. We both work in the suburbs, so we bought in the suburbs. Living downtown would mean MORE of a commute for us.
* We also deliberately purchased near a big box shopping strip and a public library. This means I take my car less, and when I do need it, I go less distance.
* I bike to work 2-3 times a week (on average - as much as possible is the goal) and am increasing that. I run almost all my errands on a bike. I try to carpool when I can.
* I'm on city and regional advocacy groups for transit choice, public transportation, and bicycle promotion.

But you know something? I still live in the suburbs of one of the more sprawled-out Midwestern cities. And public transit is really only available in our urban core. My county has a bus system, but it is so spartan it's impossible to use for intra-suburban travel.

In short, I'm doing everything I can to "try really hard" and "be creative," but it's probably 15-20 years before I could live, work, and play around here on 1 gallon a week. Best wishes to you, though...