I just spent a week down in the States with my sister and a friend.

When it came time to get gas for lil sis's car, a car that for over a year now has taken well over 70 dollars to fill up the tank, we expected to be told to whip down our pants and bend over.

The bill? $39.63.



For the entire tank.








Oh, you poor maligned and abused little dears. Excuse me a moment while I look for my violin.

Because we can. . .

This is a free country and you don't need a reason to whine.

hey, I'm happy gas prices are dropping
I paid $3.52/ gallon last time I filled up and that actually made my day

because we've subsidized a hell of a lot of corrupt regimes around the world in order to get cheap gas. $3.65 a gallon is bullshit when you think how much economic, political and military power we exert to get that shit!

errant said:

sho' 'nuff

because we are not used to paying this much for gas, that's why! and for many people they can't even afford to fill up their tanks anymore. it is causing hardship for many living in poverty already. it may not seem like a big deal to those living outside of the USA that are paying even higher prices than we are. but it doesn't take away from the fact that we do have a problem on our hands here, and something needs to change in a hurry!

not too long ago we were paying half of what we are currently paying

I thought we were gonna siphon all of Iraq's oil and send it through a giant pipeline under the ocean and directly to a Chevron. And gas would be 17 cents a gallon and you go pay 5 cents for a movie ticket to watch two movies, a newsreel, and a cartoon.


I was mislead.

kimrachell said:

Quit driving. Anyone who lives in a decent sized city can do it easily unless they work out of town. The more people give up their cars or at least reduce their car time, the less demand there will be. Not only that, not driving is easier on the environment and on your wallet.

I don't drive and I don't plan on ever driving. I got my license strictly for ID purposes -I'm terrified of going out on the town some night and getting shitfaced drunk and ending up losing my passport.

thekidsgirl said:

It's dropping?

It's already cheap as shit!

because it has doubled in 2 years that's why AND it's effecting our whole economy not just our gas tanks. i hate when someone from outside America makes it seem like we're whining like babies. you'd be bitching about any necessity that has doubled in price within two years too AND if you were living in the states you'd be pissed just like us.

meow85 said:

You fail to realize how dependent we are on cars. We were force fed Detroit Iron from a very young age and in doing so public transit in many cities SUFFERED! It's especially obvious here on the West Coast where it's nigh impossible for me to get to my work using public transit. Don't get me wrong either, I LOVE public transit. Hell I lived in Germany for 5 years and rarely did I NEED a car.

Things are just very different on this side...

magnificentsynthesizer said:

Yeah, because gas prices aren't increasing everywhere.

That same car that is now being filled for 70$ a tank two years ago could be filled for 40$. That's pretty well close to double.


You ARE whining like babies. Seriously. 40 bucks was no skin off our backs, and we're broke-ass college students.

RenHoek said:

So what you're saying is since you're already so dependent on cars, what's the use in trying to wean yourself off the habit? That's like a boozer saying they're already a drunk, so why bother trying to stop drinking.

Push for accesible, affordable public transit. Write your local politicans and transit boards. Start up a petition. Vote for politicians who recognize that the car culture and gas culture is literally killing people. Organize car pools or vehicle co-op programs. Bust out the bike or scooter. Walk.

meow85 said:

NO... that is NOT what I'm saying, what I'm saying is this change will never take place overnight and I consider myself one of the lucky few who've been able to live on both sides of the coin. There are millions of American's who either haven't seen it my way or would not accept that as an option.

IF the public here in the Bay Area were to switch over to public transit overnight the system would be ridiculously overloaded, PT is seen as a back up and not as a first and foremost method of transport. That is probably different for places like NY or Boston but here it's all about the car. Hell I think we invented the commute out here!!!

As for all the steps you've listed, I've been doing that for the past 8 years but our city gov't feels it's more important to get the murders down below 150 per year in a city of 400k... go figure...

SUPRMAN said:

They beat me, shake me, thrash me when I say the same about Americans in P&R

PANDURITO said:

You mis understood....THEY can do/say anything they want...the rest of the world has to just keep quiet and is irrelevant.

For the purposes of clarity this is only SOME in P+R

It's because proportionally, the price has increased very dramatically. It doubled in less than 2 years- anyway you slice it, that's a big increase. Now that I'm in Australia, I can see why it might seem silly for Americans to complain about gas prices, but relative to what Americans were used to, the price of gas really spiraled up.

mdiver said:

Oh, I see
Stupid me

PANDURITO said:

Language barrier dude.

PANDURITO said:

Don't feel bad, it happens to me too and I am American.

I think most Americans whine about the gas prices because we are not used to paying that much for our gas. Also...we in the states do not make as much in wages as most ppl over here in the UK at least so it is all relative I suppose.

RenHoek said:

I think a large part in resistance to PT is that it's stigmatized as something poor people do. I know I get all kinds of shit for not owning a car, and I run in fairly progressive circles.

Why, well when gas price go's up so does eveything else, like shipping food and other goods.

meow85 said:

Well, aren't you special? The reason gas has been cheaper here is that we don't tax the shit out of it so an entire society can live on the dole (or varying degrees of it).

Genesia said:

Wow...nice judgement, thanks for that.

meow85 said:

Because the price doubled in a very short time and no one could say why. If no one could explain the increase, then it stands to reason there was no good reason.

THAT'S what made us mad.

If the price would have gone up steadily with inflation over the years, no one would have really noticed. Instead we have these oil speculators that swing the price so drastically (going up, but only slowly going down) and pisses everyone off.

Because whether you drive or not, it's impacting everyone. It is causing the price of everything to go up. I'm currently without a car and taking public transportation everywhere I go. But now bus fares are going up as well. And even the cost of ice cream has risen.


PS - I'm almost as sick of non-americans complaining about americans complaining about gas prices as I am hearing everyone here bitch about gas prices. Either way you slice it, it's complaining.

Any way that you cut it, we are ALL effected by the rising gas/petrol prices.

WE as a whole need to find better solutions to this problem.
What can we do?
Even if you get a vehicle with better gas mileage or stop driving all together, you are still going to feel the effects. Like Carrie said, it is making the cost of everything go up.
I find it very hard because I moved from the states to the UK, it is about 8 times more expensive to buy fuel here.
I guess that is why I have not bought a car of my own, I do not see the point, too expensive.