Gas Money

[DanGenck]

So here's the question of the day- What's your breaking point with gasoline prices? As we all know from basic Economics 101, no new fuel sources or lower prices will happen as long as demand is high. Therefore, no changes will show up until people demanding gasoline and the economic viability reduces.

So, what's your breaking point financially? $6 a gallon? $7? Less? More?

[shrekjr]

I think we are so dependent on our cars for transportation, we don't have a choice in what we pay for gas. We either pay it or don't go to work. I can't afford to live near my job, and I can't make as much money near where I live. If we don't have public transportation where we live and work, what other choices do we realistically have but to pay the gas prices and cut expenses elsewhere?

[Hackalicious]

I think we are so dependent on our cars for transportation, we don't have a choice in what we pay for gas. We either pay it or don't go to work. I can't afford to live near my job, and I can't make as much money near where I live. If we don't have public transportation where we live and work, what other choices do we realistically have but to pay the gas prices and cut expenses elsewhere?

Carpool.
Bike and walk.
Ride existing public transit.
Buy a smaller car or hybrid.
Move to a smaller place closer to your work.

Granted, this is like telling you to eat your broccoli and floss your teeth.

[Danny Hogan]

which do you use?

[DanGenck]

which do you use?

Careful, we're getting into logical fallacy land...

Ad hominem, fallacy of insufficient statistics, and possibly a little straw man.

[Ken Lovic]

I drive an SUV and dumby it down.... I am still paying less than .25 per mile. Not a bad deal to be able to drive myself at this point. I know there are things we can do but I am not sure where the ceiling is to be honest. $6 and $7 per gallon, wow, scary to think

[ZagGrad]

If we had as good as public transportation as some of the larger cities do, I wouldn't drive my car nearly as much. Unfortunately, no pt finds it's way near my work and I'd rather not carpool with the certain individuals that live near me. My car's already a smaller car, but has AWD so it sucks the gas on a somewhat moderate level. I don't know what the breaking point for me will be. I do know that I try to get away from driving as much as possible.

[OldPoly75]

It would take me three busses and a rickshaw to get from home to work. The 25 minute drive is probably good up to 7 bucks a gallon, of course before then I'd procure myself a Honda Civic, or something similar, instead of driving the V8 Silverado every day. If I wasn't such a sweaty hog, or if my little office had a gym I'd probably bike in a couple times a week when I was feeling limber. Since I work for a large enough company, and my work is mainly all computerized by now, at some point if it got really crazy I'm sure even they would allow for some home-officing, which could cut way down on some peoples gas bills.

Just random thoughts on the subject.

[OAKS]

If we had as good as public transportation as some of the larger cities do, I wouldn't drive my car nearly as much. Unfortunately, no pt finds it's way near my work and I'd rather not carpool with the certain individuals that live near me. My car's already a smaller car, but has AWD so it sucks the gas on a somewhat moderate level. I don't know what the breaking point for me will be. I do know that I try to get away from driving as much as possible.

Bigger cities don't necessarily translate to better public transportation. Here in Atlanta, I was driving about 25 minutes to work. Taking the train, then a bus took me about 2 hours. New York now, on the other hand, is great. While my sister was living there, we never needed a car and we could get anywhere in a decent amount of time

[TexOle]

I paid 2.40 today.

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2006/03/06/brazil/

That Erik Fosheim guy is frickin stud.

[ZagGrad]

I'm familiar with San Diego, San Francisco, Boston, and D.C.--cities that I have frequently visited over the past few years. All of their PT is incredible and fairly quick. Seattle is not worth it and Portland is decent. Not too familiar with ATL.

I think the most I have paid, per gallon, has to be 3.23 (premium).

[OAKS]

Here is ATL's subway system. A nice big cross that takes you nowhere you want to go. About the only convenient feature is that it's good for getting to the airport.

[ZagGrad]

Hasn't there been talk about a light rail or some sort of mag-lev train down in Atlanta?

[Danny Hogan]

chicago has pretty good public transportation

[OAKS]

Hasn't there been talk about a light rail or some sort of mag-lev train down in Atlanta?

If you're thinkin of the BeltLine... it's still in its infancy and doesn't look like it's gonna be as great as it could be.

http://www.beltline.org/what/maps.shtml#

"The BeltLine is a 22-mile loop of historic railroad that encircles downtown and midtown Atlanta, with a radius of two-to-four miles from Atlanta's center. Over 100,000 people live within half a mile of the BeltLine, which connects 45 of the city's in-town neighborhoods"