Archives

http://www.thestar.com/article/205145


Despite all the whining, gasoline is as cheap now as it has ever been, on an inflation-adjusted basis. It is the cheapest fluid you can buy at a gasoline station. Water is three bucks a litre, fer cryin' out loud.


As long as gasoline is free, we're going to keep on driving all by ourselves to work in a 2,000 kg truck, or picking up little Brittney at Havergal in a 500-horse SUV, engine idling while you wait, air-con set at full cryogenic.

Just because it's a cheaper fluid does not by any stretch mean it's free.

His point is that alternative energy and conservation will not happen with gas prices being what they are. Even if $4 or $5 happens this summer, consumption will not drop very much.

Hi Sledge:

___Although we have read the inflation adjustment take for years, consider the fact we should be paid for taking a Computer off of Dell’s hands with the same argument. Gasoline is not free and the parking lot I work in is proof of this fact as the SUV’s are slowly disappearing and the fuel efficient Yaris’, Corolla’s, Civic’s and Hybrid’s are taking over. The change is happening even if gasoline is supposedly “cheap” on an inflation adjusted basis. Who anywhere loves to give the oil companies $100 - $200 a month because it’s cheap? Why is Ford’s, GM’s, and DCX’s large P/U and SUV sales lower hen they were 3 years ago? The Japanese do not even sell vehicles that size.

___Fortunately for you, I and everybody else here, we know better :D

___Good Luck

___Wayne

It's slow, but there is a slow trickle effect.

Poseur gets bling-bling mobile for 50-60K. Gets 15mpg. Gotta replace it every three years - oh and it drinks gas. Can barely afford it. That or divorce or layoffs come. Foreclosure.

GM is concerned (MSNBC article somewhere) foreclosures will hurt their sales.

Who anywhere loves to give the oil companies $100 - $200 a month because it’s cheap?

You give them $100-$200 a month? I only hand over around $40-$50 :D

Hi Sledge:

___At that minimum level, you should be biking :p

___Good Luck

___Wayne

I'd have to bike through the ghetto and I'm not that crazy. :p

Now that nice weather is here I usually put 80-100 miles on my bike per week.

Now that nice weather is here I usually put 80-100 miles on my bike per week.
Hi Sledge:

___Nice job :thumbs_up:

___Good Luck

___Wayne

As long as there appears to be a supply, there will be no problem creating an demand. As I mentioned in another thread, sadly I think the only thing that's going to make a major change in what America drives is another OPEC embargo. :(

Hi Sledge:

___Nice job :thumbs_up:

___Good Luck

___Wayne

I'm torn Wayne.

Last year I pedaled to work for 3 months and my cumulative mpg suffered as I would have gotten in the low to mid 30s for at least 4 tanks, much more this summer now that I'm maxifasing.

My doctor says I need more exercise, and I have gained 20lbs since last summer.:o

I think I will suck it up and pedal again this summer, but that destroys any chance of me ever getting close to your truck's FE. :mad: Maybe every other day, but even then it's gonna take 1.5-2 months for 1 tanks results.

High FE isn't worth burning more gas, and it's definitely not worth passing up an opportunity to improve your health. Maybe Tom would consider adding a BPV - Burrito Powered Vehicle - section with signature blocks to encourage everybody to ditch the car as often as possible? That would be pretty sweet, and a great way to send a message.

Hi Worthywads:

___You are already doing better then any Tacoma driver on the planet and then to bike some makes your carbon footprint that much smaller! You are far exceeding any goal I have achieved with the last part of that sentence :D

___Also, see the Website news and discussions forum for what you may have started thanks to Tim’s prodding ;)

___Good Luck

___Wayne

High FE isn't worth burning more gas, and it's definitely not worth passing up an opportunity to improve your health. Maybe Tom would consider adding a BPV - Burrito Powered Vehicle - section with signature blocks to encourage everybody to ditch the car as often as possible? That would be pretty sweet, and a great way to send a message.

A Pedal or Foot powered log might help me keep it up. If anyone else wants to join in that'd be cool, don't know if this has been done before, any ideas are open.

Hi Sledge:

___Although we have read the inflation adjustment take for years, consider the fact we should be paid for taking a Computer off of Dell’s hands with the same argument. Gasoline is not free and the parking lot I work in is proof of this fact as the SUV’s are slowly disappearing and the fuel efficient Yaris’, Corolla’s, Civic’s and Hybrid’s are taking over. The change is happening even if gasoline is supposedly “cheap” on an inflation adjusted basis. Who anywhere loves to give the oil companies $100 - $200 a month because it’s cheap? Why is Ford’s, GM’s, and DCX’s large P/U and SUV sales lower hen they were 3 years ago? The Japanese do not even sell vehicles that size.

___Fortunately for you, I and everybody else here, we know better :D

___Good Luck

___Wayne

what is strange is that expedition sales are up something like 30% for the year while explorer sales continue to nosedive. This tells me that upper middle class folks who want an SUV to haul their boat or just to have are going to buy them, but that most middle class folks who used to drive SUVs because they were the thing to drive (i.e. explorer or other manufacturer's derivative) are leaving in droves to mid size sedans, crossovers, compacts, and hybrids.

just something i found interesting.

That was a strange article, bouncing between paragraphs in defense of the car companies/low FE culture, and the occasional line that could have come from a member here. I wonder if the "praise the automakers" stuff was to sneak the "need to reduce fuel consumption" parts past the defenses of their readers.

One of the things I like about this site is that even though its focus is on high FE, people care about the end result -- less pollution, less fuel use -- and see the vehicle (hybrid, diesel, bike) as just means to those ends.

Worthywads, I'm surprised that biking pulls down your FE. It replaces all my short trips where I would do worse than my average.

Greg

Sigh... I haven't been on the bike in a few weeks. I'd love to be able to ride to work, but I have to go through an intersection that is 90% semis and dump trucks full of coal. They don't play well with others. It make me nervous in the car. The *Mart is just a few miles round trip, but there's a lot of traffic and intersections, and no sidewalk most of the way. this is definitely NOT a bike friendly city. At least I can walk to the ghetto grocery and the dollar store - they're across the street.

Oh, and I learned recently that the electric plant the dump trucks full of coal are going in and out of is not only the biggest source of air pollution in the city, but also the 10th largest source of fine particulate sulfur dioxide in the entire United States. I work about half a mile from this thing. :mad:

I really need to leave this place. Madison interests me, as does Austin. I'm saving my pennies.

I'm torn Wayne.

Last year I pedaled to work for 3 months and my cumulative mpg suffered as I would have gotten in the low to mid 30s for at least 4 tanks, much more this summer now that I'm maxifasing.

My doctor says I need more exercise, and I have gained 20lbs since last summer.:o

I think I will suck it up and pedal again this summer, but that destroys any chance of me ever getting close to your truck's FE. :mad: Maybe every other day, but even then it's gonna take 1.5-2 months for 1 tanks results.

I know what you mean. If I drove in the summer as much as I need to in the winter (i.e. not commuting 13 miles RT/day by bike instead), I would have be a "recognized" hypermiler by now. Instead it takes me a month and a half or more to complete a tank and I only fit in 2 or 3 for the whole summer! I'm not about to make excuses to drive more just to bump up the LMPG faster, but it is frustrating to see that I probably won't hit the magic number until late this year, only to probably see it slip away until NEXT summer!

High FE isn't worth burning more gas, and it's definitely not worth passing up an opportunity to improve your health. Maybe Tom would consider adding a BPV - Burrito Powered Vehicle - section with signature blocks to encourage everybody to ditch the car as often as possible? That would be pretty sweet, and a great way to send a message.

Completely agree. A "combined MPG" metric or something (counting bike/walking commuting as a part of total miles) would be really neat. (Yes, I know this idea has come up before...)

I really need to leave this place. Madison interests me, as does Austin. I'm saving my pennies.

If you're looking for bike-friendly, Madison is pretty high up on the list. I could get to work entirely by paved trail if I wanted to (though it would add about 50% to the RT), and there is another route that would take me straight to the heart of downtown w/o having to deal with clueless traffic.