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I pay 3.70 a gallon. When you start paying that, $3.00 feels like a painless, distant memory.
... of US cities.
(reuters news story excerpted from Yahoo news)US gasoline at $3 drives people onto buses, trains
By Carolyn Koo
1 hour, 33 minutes ago
Gasoline prices at near-record highs are fueling a big increase in the number of riders on buses and trains, prompting cities around the country to improve their public transport systems, transportation agencies said on Tuesday.
The Energy Information Administration, the U.S. government's top energy forecasting agency, on Monday said the average U.S. retail gasoline price increased 71 cents over a year ago to $3 a gallon, the second highest pump price ever.
The highest price, $3.057 a gallon, came in the wake of Hurricane Katrina last summer. If that experience is any indication, it showed Americans can indeed be forced from their cars at the right price.
"Around the time Katrina hit and the gas prices started approaching $3, we began to hear from our members that they were seeing large es in ridership," William Millar, president of the American Public Transport Association, said.
"There were literally dozens of cities that were seeing double-digit increases."
It's estimated that U.S. riders of public transport save 855 million gallons of gasoline a year, or $2.56 billion at current average prices for a gallon of regular gasoline, according to the APTA.
The APTA and transportation agencies around the country are optimistic they'll continue enjoying increased ridership as gasoline prices go up.
In the first quarter, as gas prices started to surge again, public transportation ridership rose 4.25 percent nationwide, representing almost 2.5 billion trips, the APTA said.
The increase "seems to relate very largely to gas prices," Millar said. "Hearing anecdotally from our members about their second quarter numbers, it would appear that trend is continuing."
LOCAL TAXES TO FUND IMPROVEMENTS
Websites are helping to make a difference, with several transit systems around the nation, including Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Dallas, enjoying increased hits on their sites. "You might look at that as an indication of future business," said Millar.
Traffic on the Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) website has "gone up and actually ed with the rises in gas prices," said DART spokesman Morgan Lyons.
The boost in ridership has many of the country's transit systems looking to make improvements, with ballot initiatives asking voters for permission to raise local taxes for public transit or to continue taxes that were scheduled to end.
For instance, Salt Lake City, where ridership is up 43 percent versus a year ago, is asking the public this fall for $900 million to add 30 miles of tracks to the city's light rail system in a project that is expected to cost $1.2 billion.
Polling indicates 93 percent of voters in the area want a chance to vote on the initiative, with 65 percent of them saying they would approve the plan, according to Utah Transit Authority spokesman Justin Jones.
"You have to have the demand in order to justify doing that," said Joan Hunter, a spokeswoman for the Fort Worth Transportation Authority. "I think now the interest for the first time in years is really high."
Plan accordingly. Low-density suburbs will give way to dense mixed use areas, as is already happening to a small degree for reasons unrelated to the cost of gas. The Triangle development in austin being a good example, as is something planned for Houston that I can't remember the name of.
I pay 3.70 a gallon. When you start paying that, $3.00 feels like a painless, distant memory.
"the second highest pump price ever."
adjusted for inflation, it's not the highest price ever.
http://www.randomuseless.info/gasprice/gasprice.html
That's like dubya crowing and lying with figures because the tax-cut-driven deficit is down to "only" $300B.
Last edited by boutons_; 07-25-2006 at 02:15 PM.
There was a story Sunday in the Statesman about several Triangle-like developments outside of downtown.
$3/gallon is cheap!!
wait till it gets to $6/gallon.
There's a lot of in-filling going on in San Antonio.
Carving up big lots inside 410 is what this zoning issue is about:
http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_action=doc&p_theme=saec&p_topdoc=1&p_do cnum=1&p_sort=YMD_date&p_product=SAEC&p_text_direct-0=do ent_id=(%20112D4F3A7998E368%20)&&s_dlid=DL0 106072519173714467&s_ecproduct=SUB-FREE&s_subterm=Subscription%20until%3A%2012%2F14%2 F2015%2011%3A59%20PM&s_subexpires=12%2F14%2F2015%2 011%3A59%20PM&s_username=safree
When gas gets to $3.50--and definitely when it gets to $4--is when I start taking the bus to work.
As the summer started, several soundings showed that people planned to drive as much this summer as ever, behavior unchanged by the $3 gas.
Of course, the powerless people at the bottom get hurt the most, while the powerful people at the top, responsible for addressing the problem, feel no pain whatsoever, and do nothing.
Urban Sprawl is all I have to say.
Everything else is lipstick on a hog.
July 26, 2006
Oil Prices Rise As Gas Supplies Shrink
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 12:31 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Oil prices cruised higher Wednesday after U.S. government data showed a large drop in gasoline supplies, with summer demand almost 2 percent higher than last year despite $3-a-gallon pump prices.
....
======================
Americans can all the want about higher gas prices vs comparatively "free" gas earlier, the prices aren't so high as to change driving behaviors.
If we had any real leaders in this country or mature voters willing to sacrifice their lard-butt, princely comforts for future security of the USA, we'd have gas quickly pushed to $5/gal by federal taxes to force changes in behavior and in products that would seriously drive down consumption of oil for transport, and to keep those US$ from $80 oil in the USA rather than flowing by the 10s of $Bs into the hands of Iran, (soon-to-be-enemy) Iraq, and Russia.
The same leaders would require that those 10s of $Bs in federal taxes be consecrated to subsidizing an Apollo-scale research programs into engine efficiencies, alternative propulsion systems, short-haul rail transport, etc, rather letting those tax $Bs be wasted for pork and earmarks.
It won't change driving behaviors much at first, merely spending behaviors, as free cash flow in families is diverted to the gas tank, but given the debt load carried by most americans, that rubber band doesn't have far to stretch.
As a future investor in the energy sector, I say: Keep it up!
Heh, my Crown Vic isn't exactly lean on gas either. Heh.
This is exactly what most people are doing. Even at $3 gas people still have to drive to work, run errands, pick up the kids and for most public transportation just isn't an option. So instead people are cutting back on other things like a night or two out, or foregoing unneeded expenses like the cell phone or the cable with the 300 channels. This is why I balk whenever I hear people say that the high energy prices are not curtailing demand, of course not, there are more cars on the road than ever, however, because people are spending more on gas that money is drained out of the local economy and it slows the economy.
with fuel more expensive, people will buy cars that spend it less. Public transportation will not gain anything. Take a look at prices of fuel in Europe
1 US gallon = 3.7854118 liters
1 liter of fuel in Slovenia is about 1.4USD
1 gallon would be around 5.3dollars
and PT still struggels here. (needs goverment help)
Same with my Park Avenue (17/18 mpg). It's basically a go-to-work car (I'll drive it 'til it dies) so what I lose in gas I make up for in insurance premiums and car payments.
It's really inexcusable for American cars to be so far behind the foreign cars in gas economy and overall reliability. Toyotas will be our car of choice from now on (have one).
(bowls over)
Something we agree on. Driving a car into the ground is the best way to save money.
Actually it is also a way to be a bit more ecologically friendly. The processes by which cars are built pollute a lot. More cars= more pollution. Holding on to a car, even one that pollutes more over time as the engine croaks, still is more ecologically friendly than buying a new one every 3 years.
I had a Hyundai Accent.......but in this gas price atmosphere I am beginning to miss my little Diahatsu Charade 3-cylinder lawn mower.
sum has to pull in the revenue to fund bushes war though...
Dang. Remarkably precient this.
Looks like the rubber band snapped.
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