Even before Hurricane Katrina, when we were paying around $2.55 for a gallon of gasoline, the adjustments made necessary by the increased price fueled many a news story. From the tone of the reports, one would think we were in a crisis of terrible proportions, but their content was encouraging. People now had to think twice, it was said, before making a trip by car. They were combinging trips, carpooling, using public transportation, walking, and riding bikes. All of which looks like good news to me.
News reporters, it seems, are most enthusiastic when reporting bad news, and love to expand problems into disasters. I don't believe you can call our fuel problems a crisis, even post-Katrina, any more than I believe we have an obesity crisis, although most Americans are undeniably overfed and underexercised.
Nonetheless, I will use the media's terms and make the encouraging prediction that if we don't interfere with the process too much, the energy crisis may go a long way toward curing the obesity crisis.
Comments
Just for interesting comparison of regional prices: Jon had heard Monday that prices were going to go up, so we filled up the tank at $2.53. The next morning, all the stations were up to $2.99, and now they're all into the $3.20s.
Posted by
joyful
on Sunday, September 04, 2005 at 8:22 am
I made the difference look worse than it is, by writing $1.55 before correcting it to $2.55. But you've taken a bigger leap than we have, so far -- we just filled up on the way home from church at $2.99.
Posted by
SursumCorda
on Sunday, September 04, 2005 at 11:04 am
Jon corrected me - the prices did not go to $2.99 until Friday. Tuesday they went to $2.65 or so. I had wondered if you made a typo...
Posted by
joyful
on Sunday, September 04, 2005 at 7:47 pm
This is probably not the time to say this, but I am enjoying not having a car. Of course, I did get to school today soaked to the skin . . .
Posted by
Harp
on Monday, September 05, 2005 at 7:04 am
CNN did (is doing?) a survey on how the rising gas prices are affecting one's driving. I said that they didn't affect us at all, that the prices hardly make a difference in the grand scheme of things. (I wrote this when the prices were at $2.50)
It is certainly a bigger difference than the new $50 annual tax that Pittsburgh charges people who work in the city, and when that was raised from $10, you would have thought it was $10/hour from the way people talked about it: they were going to quit their job, move/work elsewhere, etc.
I heard once that driving patterns didn't change in Europe until the price hit $5 a gallon, and I have wondered if it will take that much here. I think so - as I don't see any differences around here, and your report of Florida is the first I have heard of people actually changing their behavior, instead of just complaining about it.
It is certainly a bigger difference than the new $50 annual tax that Pittsburgh charges people who work in the city, and when that was raised from $10, you would have thought it was $10/hour from the way people talked about it: they were going to quit their job, move/work elsewhere, etc.
I heard once that driving patterns didn't change in Europe until the price hit $5 a gallon, and I have wondered if it will take that much here. I think so - as I don't see any differences around here, and your report of Florida is the first I have heard of people actually changing their behavior, instead of just complaining about it.
Posted by
jondaley
on Tuesday, September 06, 2005 at 9:57 am
Hmm. A guy commented on this
Walking Tutorial and mentions that petrol will need to get to $5/litre before people change anything.
Posted by
jondaley
on Tuesday, September 06, 2005 at 11:09 am
I think driving patterns may change at a lower price here because I'll bet we generally have further to drive than Europeans do. If I started in Paris and drove the distance from Orlando to Pittsburgh, I could go through Germany, Austria, and Hungary almost to the Romanian border. A smaller price increase may not make much difference in people's minds for short hops, but cause them to take vacations closer to home. (Vacations where you visit family are a much less elastic expense, however.)
Most of my data on how people changed their driving behavior came from the news story, but it's true that one of Porter's friends is now riding his bike everywhere he can, and that was a real change for him.
It wasn't the price increase that changed our habits, however, but the unavailability of gasoline. The question is, will we continue to conserve now that it's more easily obtainable?
Most of my data on how people changed their driving behavior came from the news story, but it's true that one of Porter's friends is now riding his bike everywhere he can, and that was a real change for him.
It wasn't the price increase that changed our habits, however, but the unavailability of gasoline. The question is, will we continue to conserve now that it's more easily obtainable?
Posted by
SursumCorda
on Tuesday, September 06, 2005 at 11:30 am
I think also that in Europe, like Japan, there is more public transportation for travel (i.e. trains). Sure there are places where there trains don't run, but once you're in a city you can get to almost any other city of reasonable size. Even though I have a 20min bike to work, I don't feel restricted by not having a car. I'm 15min by foot from the train station and from there I can go anywhere. If I'm willing, I can go even further by bike and explore many places. It's harder in America because (as far as I know) the public transportation is not as good. I can't remember my original point now . . .
Posted by
Harp
on Tuesday, September 06, 2005 at 10:11 pm
I thought we were going to be able to avoid paying high prices, as we bought some just before the large increase, and we had a $.20/gallon coupon from Giant Eagle (get a $.10 for every $50 spent at the grocery store), but their prices have recently been higher than the other stations (they used to be the same price, which I couldn't understand, now they are generally 10 cents higher than other stations).
So, with our coupon, we ended up paying $2.74, resulting in a $40 fill up.
Another person at the station also noticed that the speed of the fill up seems to be based on the dollar amount, not the volume of gas, as it took quite a long time to fill up the tank.
So, with our coupon, we ended up paying $2.74, resulting in a $40 fill up.
Another person at the station also noticed that the speed of the fill up seems to be based on the dollar amount, not the volume of gas, as it took quite a long time to fill up the tank.
Posted by
jondaley
on Monday, September 19, 2005 at 9:18 pm
Add comment
