Unless you live and work in a walkable city with good public transportation, you are probably dependent on your car (and the gas that runs it) for everything from earning your bread and butter to driving to the grocery store to pick it up.
I am fortunate enough to work at home, but my daughter has commuted to college an hour away for four years; and though my husband works ten miles from home, once or twice a week he is required to make an eighty mile trip to his office in Boston.
As residents of the kind of sprawling suburban-style "developments," we rely on the car for all our necessary errands, as well as for recreational trips to restaurants, movies, visits to friends or the beach. Most of our immediate family members live one to eight hours away; and when we visit, we travel by car. Though there are convenience stores and banks only a couple of miles away, getting there would require walking down a major route without sidewalks, and crossing a busy multi-laned intersection without a walk light. There is no bus service in our area.
Though we all drive small, energy-efficient vehicles, we've felt the impact of the rising cost of gas and have cut down on recreational trips. Still, we haven't made the kind of changes that would offset the rise. And in many ways, short of selling the home we've lived in for twenty years and moving to a more walker-friendly area, how could we? (In fact, our home has been on sale for several reasons for this very reason, but in a glutted market, we've gotten little interest.)
Clearly, we're not alone. In my area, even when Gas prices were at their highest, traffic never diminished. (In fact, they're adding new lanes to our major roads to handle an increase in volume.) And yesterday, when my husband and I drove home from Boston at rush hour, the highways were clogged with the usual daily commuters, most traveling alone, many in gas-hungry vehicles. While this may not affect the wealthy, I suspect that many of these travelers have been--or soon will be, if gas rises as predicted-- forced to make sacrifices in other areas of their lives just to get to work.
Within the next week or two, that rise is expected to be in the twenty cent range. And unless the drop we saw in oil prices yesterday continues dramatically, that increase is only the beginning.
In a recent discussion, a visitor from the UK pointed out that gas is nearly ten dollars a gallon there, and it still hasn't impacted driving habits. On the other hand, he pointed out, everyone except the very wealthy drives small, fuel-efficient vehicles, and few make long commutes to work.
So here's my question of the week: How high would the price of gas have to rise before it seriously impacted your lifestyle and changed your driving habits?
A) It already has.
B) $5 a gallon
C) $8-10
D) $15-20 range
E) A moot point because I believe costs are unlikely to rise beyond the current prices
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Comments: 60
My mother forces me to walk places almost all the time instead of being driven :[ stupid gas prices.
The government should have protected us and prepared us for this.... WTF?
I heard a brief story on CNN this morning, discussing how there's no public transportation in rural areas, as well as a lesser selection of competing convenience stores; the rural poor are gouged more than any other group in the country right now. I wish it was the kind of thing they'll recall next November, but I'm not optimistic about the possibility.
I do many interviews, book signings and seminars. I am having to cut back on travel and doing my interviews and seminar by phone. It's sad to not have as much person to person interaction. But it is working out for now. Thanks for the article.
Curbing mobility abuse. Curbing, for short.
It has changed our habits somewhat. I do most of the errands like the bank, post office, and grocery store on foot or bike anyway, but we have started to combine trips into town for other things with his work days, so he is there already.
We also rented a Prius for a Trip to Tahoe last month. Even with the daily rental fee, we saved $$ because of getting 40mpg.
I live in the same kind of place that you do. It is very hard , everything is not in walking distance and the bus service is horrible or non existant
But I've been able to catch up on my reading, which is nice.
And since the buses run on cleaner burning CNG, I hope I'm helping the air quality as well as saving us money.
My mother in law now lives with us, so no more 16 hours in the car four times a year. That helps.
The point about the clothes dryer is a good one. Transportation is not our only carbon emitting activity. But still, what we are doing now with vehicles is unsustainable. And some of those gas hogs on the road are brand new!!!! What are they thinking, can't they see the writing on the wall?
We are in trouble. None of the solutions are close enough in time to permit us to dodge the bullet.
Great article to prompt a discussion.
Does this look familiar? I posted this for you.
http://www.gather.com/viewImage.jsp?fileId=3096224744470864&memberId=214288
we have doctors appts to go to a few times a month
and they are not too close by... we never can have a
fun 'sunday drive' like we used to; we just stay real close
to home and feel kinda 'stuck' from going out anymore... sad...
Blessings to you all...
I live in NJ. The prices change with the hands on the clock. It's ridiculous.
Help me get a publishing deal with a 10 rating and a comment. I comment back.
Ten unsolicited points from the world's worst connection. Merry whatever you celebrate!
My driving habits will never change. I take 600 mile trip about every other month or so and each time I tell myself that I am going to just go the speed limit to save on gas and each time I find myself flying down the Interstate at about 80....