USA National Gas Temperature Map

[budafist]

Just thought this (http://www.gasbuddy.com/gb_gastemperaturemap.aspx) would be interesting for the Yanks :)

Gas is now $2 per litre here. It had been sitting under $2 forever.

http://img396.imageshack.us/img396/4046/picture3fl3.png

[Red Kittie Kat]

I'm living in the orange zone :D

We all need to move to the mid west :p

[Virgo Nightingale]

I'm in the green, third to cheapest. It's amazing that 15 miles away in NYC it's all the way into the highest red. The contrast is unbelievable. I know I'm hurtin' a bit, but you guys must be gettin' killed. I can't believe it's just going to keep getting worse. :(

[Red Kittie Kat]

Yep .. there is no end in sight ... It's not so bad being in the city having public transportation .. but Up here there is nothing ... some busing in the bigger towns but they don't go very far.

You need a car and you need to buy gas. My sister and brother in law drive 30 minutes to work every day and it's costing them about 220 dollars a month just in gas now.

That's nearly a car payment.

It's easy to say well people will need to start car pooling and biking. I don't think anyone wants to bike 20 miles to work every day and there is no one remotely close they can carpool with. They can't even car pool with each other. She works days .. he works nights.

My sister works at a gas station and she said she has never seen so many 100 dollar bills in a days time. People are going through them like crazy now just to fill their tanks. She said its sad to see someone come in for just a few dollars and pay in change. You can tell the ones it's hurting really bad.

How bad is it that you have to scrape together change to buy a gallon of gas.

As bad as it is I know other countries have it worse and I can't imagine what it will be like here when it reaches what they are dealing with. :(

[PrintDriver]

I've been looking around for an apartment nearer to work. Or maybe getting a Yaris for a commuting car rather than using my pickup. No one wants to carpool with me. I might work from 6:30am to 7pm on any given random day.

[reuber1]

We all need to move to the mid west :p
lol, you want the ridiculously low income that comes with it? No wonder there's skilled worker shortage here...you can get the education in this state, but since the pay sucks, everyone wants to leave. I'd rather be elsewhere.

[vtwin_gary]

i love my chopper.
lane splittin, gas savin, knees in the breeze!

it's a real gas guzzler as far as motorcycles are concerned but i still get around 35MPG

[Rockk]

$3.96 in Columbus, OH - my Trek looks better and better.

[Riefnu]

I drive a saturn that gets 33 mpg. Its from 1999. -cough-

I'll be driving home from florida to a red county near chicago in two weeks too.


Woo hoo for only 4 gas stops the WHOLE trip.

[morea]

$3.96 in Columbus, OH - my Trek looks better and better.

Do it!!!

I picked up a rack and some saddlebags for my mountain bike so that I can even use it to get groceries. :)

[urstwile]

Wow, just look at California. I consider myself fortunate that I can take the bus to work and be there in about 15 minutes. That's not necessarily the case in other parts of San Diego.

[garricks]

I noticed something interesting today. While last week gas spiked up to US$3.79 as of Friday on my way home, today it's fallen to the $3.71-3.74 range. Which is odd, because it usually goes up higher on Memorial Day weekend.

[BJMRGTIVR6]

I have been trying to adjust my driving habits to coast more often.
I even mentioned (actually fir the past year) about my work putting up a Bike rack...don't want to leave my $1000 bike just hanging around outside and a co-worker mentioned carpooling. I think i will ask her more about it this week. She might have been joking but that would help to get lengthen the time between fill-ups.

I bought gas the day before Katrina struck and carpooled the next few months...carpoolling helped me go more than a month between fill-ups. (only work 3 miles away) Gas is anywhere from $3.71-$4.09 for cheap stuff depending on the area.

[reuber1]

I am eyeing apartments that are walking distance from work and where I workout. That would be golden.

[budafist]

I think it is definately worth living closer to work. I pay only about $20 more in rent per week than people that live out in the suburbs but my weekly transport cost is less than $15. The transport cost if I lived further away would be around $50 a week. Less stress too because I can get up as late as possible.

The best was when I lived less than 10 minutes walk from work. On the flipside if anything went wrong during nightshift I had to come in to fix it!

[urstwile]

LOL Buda, that was the way it was for me at our old apartment. I was so close to work (ten minutes walk away) that I was always the one called in on weekends if there was something that needed to be done. Fortunately that didn't happen too often, but still, the proximity was almost an inconvenience...for me.

Even now, I could walk to work, if I were motivated to get up a bit earlier, it'd take me about 40 minutes to walk. I take the bus or trolley instead. And my office pays for my monthly pass, so I pay nothing for transportation.

[TheBluePanda]

I live in a Green-Yellow zone.

Unfortunately, my 60-mile a day commute costs me over $250 per month. :/

[garricks]

Well, I specifically bought my house to be close to work. It's about 3-1/2 miles from where my office used to be. Then TPTB got the bright idea to kick everything non-clinical off the medical school campus. My office is now about 15 miles away. And no clear way to take public transpo. The commute would take 90 minutes and require three transfers.

I hear rumors that we might move again. That building would be at a Metro stop. I'd do that in a second!

[Broacher]

If one US gallon = 3.8 litres, here in Southern Ontario, we're paying anywhere from $4.75 to $5 a gallon.

When I started this job here ten years ago (I drive a roundtrip of 100km each day) gas was probably somewhere around $1.50 a gallon or so. And yep, I've never owned anything larger than a subcompact.

[longboy]

I'm in a yellow-green area, but still put so many miles on my cars (my 2 + the wife's car) that we've been spending about $500/mo. on gas. This summer might be better since my wife and daughter are off for the summer from school.

Funny thing is, I'd like to buy a car that gets better mileage. Sadly, I can't afford it with the way gas prices are currently.

[Bladez]

Here in Calgary we're paying $1.299/L so thats...what $4.94/gal? I'm so glad I got rid of my El Camino...I had to fill that thing up 3 times a week. The Grand Am is so much cheaper....$50/week is about the best I've ever done for gas. I wish I could take transit to work, but it would involve 3 buses and a train, and about a 3 hour commute, as compared to the 25 minute drive. Yes, transit in Calgary does scuk that bad for the new areas. Thankfully the new job is a block off the train line, and the station is only a 5 or 10 minute drive from home. That'll make things so much nicer.

[Broacher]

I can't wait for Ontario to be designated a 'have-not' province. Go tar sands, go.

[Bladez]

You'd think that with Alberta supplying a good portion of the countries oil we'd see some kind of lower pricing on it, but no. What really bugs me is that it's cheaper to ship our refined oil to Florida, than it is to ship it to N.S.

[Jriddim]

yup im in the 2nd darkest to the darkest red... i spent 429 the other day!!!! and my next purchase is seriously gonna be a mountain bike...

[Broacher]

I wonder how the Americans here would feel about any sort of 'Equalization Payment' scheme being introduced to offset state-to-state financial disparities?

When I look at the history (the fact that Ontario is the only province NEVER to have received any funds from the equalization program) and the figures-- the percentage of my taxes that goes outside the province, my provincial tax rate, and the provincial per capita income rates--and then try to map that all to the lifestyles imposed by these realities-- it makes me wonder sometimes why we all just move en masse to le belle province or Labrador.

It's hard not to be just a little bit bitter when you visit someplace like Montreal, or Labrador, or any of the 'havenot' areas and think to yourself: "Wow, what a much more relaxed lifestyle. Look at the public infrastructure investment here. Who pays for all this? Oh... yeah."

Somewhere between gruntled, and dis....

-Broacher

[budafist]

LOL Buda, that was the way it was for me at our old apartment. I was so close to work (ten minutes walk away) that I was always the one called in on weekends if there was something that needed to be done. Fortunately that didn't happen too often, but still, the proximity was almost an inconvenience...for me.

Even now, I could walk to work, if I were motivated to get up a bit earlier, it'd take me about 40 minutes to walk. I take the bus or trolley instead. And my office pays for my monthly pass, so I pay nothing for transportation.

It takes me 45 minutes to walk to work now :) So we are about the same distance away from our work.

I try to do the walk once or twice a week (normally the walk home). It's gets easier every time.

[Tea]

I'm living in the orange zone :D

We all need to move to the mid west :p

You'd think. But the problem is where I live is everything that provides a decent price on groceries, etc. is 15 miles away. So you just don't hop in the car for a gallon of milk or a pizza. It's a planned operation. I could buy from my local store, but the rat bastards want nearly 10.00 for a gallon of ice cream. I dun think so. Other than the metro areas and cities like Duluth, Rochester and Fargo, the chances are you live at least 10 miles away.

Things have drastically changed this week in our community. Although it's hard to see it, most of them already live below the poverty level. I know several people who cancelled plans due to gas prices.

I listened to this bit from NPR (about 4 minutes) (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90801398&ft=1&f=7) as I was burning gas for the first time this week. I thought it was interesting and the part about seeing $2.00 again was very interesting.

[captain spanky]

you guys wanna try drive around in the UK for a while... that would make you feel better about being back in the states.. lol

price = £1.30 a litre here at teh mo
1 litre roughly = 0.26 US gallon
so that means £5.20 per US gallon (rough)
converted to US dollars = $10.24 per gallon.
nice.
I get 50mpg tho (1 uk gallon = 1.2 US gallon)

i would LOVE your prices!!!!

[TeeJay!]

Yeah. Don't know what you guys are complaining about. Here the price is about $10 per gallon!

[Tea]

I guess it's all relative to where you live and who you are. I remember when I heard about your gas prices and thinking how outrageous. I also remember when I paid .24 cents a gallon. Yes, I do remember that.

Then...it went to 49 cents and 75 cents and oh...the horror. The difference then and now is that people were willing to give up their lifestlye a bit by car pooling, boycotting and giving up conveniences.

I don't see that same mentalitiy because of the selfishishness and it will cost those people who struggle the most already even more.

The effects of the extremely drastic change are my concerns. We already have seen some effects of that here by gas being siphoned from cars and even farm tanks. I have a feeling we will see an increase in other crimes as well because people can't afford groceries due to the increases of shipping, etc. I'm talking basic needs. Is it a complaint? You bet it is. It's really hard to watch the crap get worse and worse and people care less and less and not be able to to a pancaking thing about it.

[Broacher]

Yeah. Don't know what you guys are complaining about. Here the price is about $10 per gallon!

If you factor in 'hidden' costs to keep the citizenry feeling like their gas-powered citizenry is less threatened, many analysts say that Americans pay much more than $10 a gallon.

Costs which include:

• The Cost of Oil-Related Defense Expenditures
• The Loss Current Economic Activity Due to Capital Outflow
• The Loss of Domestic Investment
• The Loss of Government Revenues
• The Cost of Periodic Oil Supply Disruptions

More:

http://ndcf.homeip.net/ndcf/energy/NDCF_Hidden_Cost_2006_summary_paper.pdf

[CkretAjint]

I paid $3.81 last night (about $37.50 to fill up) and across the street was a station for $4.08!

[reuber1]

you guys wanna try drive around in the UK for a while... that would make you feel better about being back in the states.. lol

price = £1.30 a litre here at teh mo
1 litre roughly = 0.26 US gallon
so that means £5.20 per US gallon (rough)
converted to US dollars = $10.24 per gallon.
nice.
I get 50mpg tho (1 uk gallon = 1.2 US gallon)

i would LOVE your prices!!!!
Yeah, but isn't a lot of that tax that pays for a lot of social programs that we don't have over here? If I knew we'd be getting a little bit extra given the amount we're paying, I wouldn't mind paying more myself...

Also...
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/05/26/gas.driving/index.html

[captain spanky]

i think something like 50% of the cost of petrol is duty
15% is vat
noooo idea how much of whatever actually goes toward something useful
it certainly doesn't go back into maintaining the roads or anything relevant to motoring...

i remember a few years ago when we had blockades and protests about the cost of fuel... and that was for it being near £1 a litre... now we're on £1.30 and people feel helpless.. and frustrated. Something is going to snap soon. Civil war may be an option. lol. imagine that :D

[garricks]

Civil war may be an option. lol. imagine that :DCap'n, we've got some documents over here in the States that you could use as templates...clicky (http://www.ushistory.org/Declaration/).

[WannaBrie]

I paid $3.81 last night (about $37.50 to fill up) and across the street was a station for $4.08!

That^ is what enrages me the most. How can there be a .20 (or more) difference in gas prices right across the street? I work 30 miles or so from my home and gas is almost always cheaper closer to work. By like .20? I really wish there was some way for me to cut down on my gas usage, but public trans here sucks, and no one I work with lives near me, so carpooling is out. What I've ended up doing is just not going anywhere on the weekends and that sucks for my son. We used to go to the beach every weekend (20+ miles east). But not anymore.

[CkretAjint]

WB, Try going grocery shopping after work on the way home and running all your errands then. That way it is one string of stops on the way home. As for not going to the beach what about other things in Orlando? Lake Eola is pretty nice and down town. Go for a picnic, with him and his friends. Play a game of soccer or football. :)

[WannaBrie]

Lake Eola is farther than the beach from my house. I'm closer to Daytona. We do the picnic thing all the time, in fact we've even done it in the backyard. I have a membership at the local "Y", so we go swimming and play tennis, etc, its just that we both really love the beach and it sucks that that has now become a "luxury" :(

[reuber1]

What's a beach? :mad:

[Bladez]

It's what you call that lady who cut you off in traffic this morning

[CkretAjint]

or your mom.... OOOoooooo *runs away*


(no offence intended)

[Bladez]

:eek:

[garricks]

Oh, no you di'in't!! ROFL

[Virgo Nightingale]

Oh yes he diiiid! :eek:

[Bladez]

Is on now!! Beach been serv'd

[Typically]

i love how big oil just says it's not our fault that we are making record profits. if the government could cap the profit percentage of big oil we might catch a break but that won't happen. everyone is so damn greedy and they don't care what or who they destroy to get that all mighty dollar. what ever happened to people trying to lower prices to get more business? isn't that the way it should work? i guess that isn't the way things work anymore :rolleyes:

[Bladez]

It's because they know that they can get away with it, without seeing much flux in their customer count. Even when the cost of a barrel of oil goes down, prices still go up, widening their profit margin with the same number of hits at the pump. Only real way that would change is if everybody in the country agreed to stop using 1 particular supplier. Their numbers drop, so do their prices, and others have to compete. But that will never happen.

[Red Kittie Kat]

I paid 4.06 yesterday.

I can see there won't be many joy rides for me this summer.

[Typically]

yea thankfully i only live 5 mins form the beach but the surfing beaches are a good 30 mins away :( oh that 5 mins without traffic :D

[garricks]

I heard on the radio on the way home that this Memorial Day weekend was one of the least travelled in recent memory. I was driving, so I didn't catch all the numbers.

If this keeps up I'm going to insist on working from home one day a week. I can't afford it.

[budafist]

It's because they know that they can get away with it, without seeing much flux in their customer count. Even when the cost of a barrel of oil goes down, prices still go up, widening their profit margin with the same number of hits at the pump. Only real way that would change is if everybody in the country agreed to stop using 1 particular supplier. Their numbers drop, so do their prices, and others have to compete. But that will never happen.

My fiance was sent an email that explained the same thing. We can't all stop using fuel, but if we stop using 1 particular supplier, that supplier will hurt. Since that supplier is hurting, they will drop their prices to compete. Once that supplier drops all others will have no choice but to drop also.

The supplier mentioned in the email was BP.

[garricks]

The supplier mentioned in the email was BP.That's interesting, because the BP stations here are among the most expensive. BP took over Amoco a few years back...

[BJMRGTIVR6]

I too notice BP as a higher one, as is Exxon. I tend to stay away from them because of that...and becuase of Valdez-sure it may not have been there fault but since then I rarely stop at an Exxon.

Normally I try and get gas when I am at a Costco/Warehouse type store. I used to calculate the price/distance thing but now with it going up...it may not be worth it for small gas runs and smaller amounts of food.

[budafist]

Hmmm....I will get my fiance to email it to me. Then I can email to anyone that wants a copy. This kind of plotting will only work if millions of people are in sync.

[Bladez]

yea, we had the same sorta thing going around Canada. It chose Petro-Canada as the supplier to boycott. Hasn't happened yet. Even when people would put on "boycott petro canada on such and such a day" there wouldn't be nearly enough people taking part for it to affect anything, because the next day they'd all go and fill up. It has be be a national effort, lasting months for any serious effects to take place. But there's just no way to organize such a massive movement over such a period of time unfortunately.

[BJMRGTIVR6]

I'm with you!!

[budafist]

It has be be a national effort, lasting months for any serious effects to take place. But there's just no way to organize such a massive movement over such a period of time unfortunately.

I think you are wrong there. We are so email savvy these days and we are so fed up with fuel prices that I think an email sent to 10 of your friends and to 10 of their friends and so on would work.

[Bladez]

yea, when the Canadian leg of this movement was happening, I sent the email to roughly 100 people. I don't know how many of them passed it on, but it obviously didn't work. I'd like to think that people are on board with things like this, but in the 3 seperate times I've seen these come about, they've not once worked. It just seems to be to much trouble for the masses to come together over something such as gas. Sure, they'll all come together to complain, but they don't do enough about it. I've tried to make people aware, and continue to pass on these movements when I know of them, but it's still not enough. Hopefully it'll happen some day tho.

[budafist]

Why wouldn't people just go to a different gas station? What's so great about the one you are boycotting? Do they forget or is it about convenience?

[Bladez]

I think it's a bit of both. Lazy buggers

[BJMRGTIVR6]

routine. i also know people (salesman or insurance adjusters) who have a gas card and don't loko at price and don't care where tehy go.

[Bladez]

Something to consider:

http://www.breakthechain.org/exclusives/exxon.html

[Tea]

This was the important part:

As consumers, we can do little to control supply, but we can control demand. However, effectively doing so means reducing demand overall, not just at one station. The reduction in demand must be severe and long-lasting. If you want to save money at the pump, slow down on the freeway, plan outings to get everything in one trip, walk more and trade in that gas-guzzling SUV for an economical compact car for starters.

Sounds like several of us are doing that already.

[Bladez]

exactly :)

[budafist]

Something to consider:

http://www.breakthechain.org/exclusives/exxon.html

Oh no! That one says Mobile and Exxon. That's not going to work if people are boycotting different suppliers. We don't have Exxon here anyways...

[Typically]

i was watching a show on vh1 last night about the 60's and 70's and it seems like people were a lot more proactive back then. people actually got together for a cause and got things done. if we could just work as a group rather than the everyman for themselves mentality we'd have a chance at changing something. like you guys have said everyone wants to complain about it but no one does anything. we as a whole country need to get together and do this or shut up and keep takin' it hard from big oil.

[Broacher]

Hah! The rebel spirits did not die!

From this day forth, I refuse to purchase any gasoline on-line. (That'll show 'em)

-Broacher
(rebel without a clause)

[BJMRGTIVR6]

but online gas stations always have the lowest prices and no sales tax.

wow, what if amazon sold gas?

[Yossarian]

I hadn't really felt the pinch up till now. The little lady and I live well within our means so the extra expenditures here or there don't hurt too much. But gas prices are beginning to curb our plans.

My commute is about 26 miles each way and takes 45 minutes. I get a little better than 30 mpg in my car. It helps that my wife drives about 2 miles to work. She'd walk or bicycle but she has to take our 1 year old to daycare.

I've thought about getting a motorcycle even though it would take me about 6 years to come out ahead financially. And that's if I buy a cheap used bike in the sub 700 cc range and do all my own maintenance. At least I'd be using less resources. The only thing that holds me back is I hate oblivious multitasking drivers enough already without giving them an even better chance of killing me.

[DesignVHL]

I'm in Chicago...according to what I've read, we have the highest costing gas in the nation right now....yes it totally sucks...

I too thought about the motorcycle...but more because I've always wanted to learn to ride one...the boyfriend is, well, not so keen on that one....he's trying to convince me that he should trade in his VW Jetta for something more cost effective...i'm not sure how cost effective it would be though to add a car payment to our list of bills, lol.

I DID recently manage to shave 8 miles off of my commute by avoiding the tollway though! :) So now, I'm only filling up about once a week, instead of two like I used to....but this redirect had more to do w/ crappy construction(i cannot seem to avoid it anyways), than w/ gas prices, as I had no idea I was going to save 8 miles!

I gotta tell ya, for what I do for my company, I could totally work from home, save A LOT more $ AND TIME wasted on commuting...i'm one of those people that finds driving and being stuck in traffic a big waste of time and resources...HOWEVER, I have to say, some of my best design concepts came out of that "downtime"!

[longboy]

How much does your commute cost you? (http://www.unfocusedbrain.com/projects/miles_per_dollar/)

$12.92/day if I drive the Grand Cherokee, $17.88/day if I drive the CJ.

:eek:

[Virgo Nightingale]

I'm lucky, I live really close to my job, and I'm in a state with relatively low gasoline costs. It costs me $1.38 round-trip.

[Craig B]

My round trip commute is almost exactly a gallon of gas (my car gets 25 mpg, my round trip is 26). So, it could be worse. Luckily my wife's commute is only 6 miles round trip, even though she has an SUV.

We're pretty fortunate in the fact that together we only average about 17000-18000 miles a year. Which I think isn't bad considering some people average that or more by themselves.

I think designers are somewhat fortunate because there jobs have the potential of being a "work from home" job. Heck, my company used to be more friendly to that even though it's gotten a little less friendly to it over the years. But I could easily work form home at least 2 to 3 times a week if my company would let me.

The reality of it all is that gas prices are not going to be going down any time soon, if at all. I wouldn't be surprised at all if those prices are above $5 a gallon here in the US by the end of the year (most likely sooner than that).

[budafist]

I catch a train most days and I sometimes walk so each way can cost $0 or $1.25NZ. That's about $1USD