Are you tired of gas prices yet? I'm reading that the price of regular unleaded has finally tipped above the $4 in most places in the US--Alaska is paying $4.25/gal!
What are you doing to cut back--I'm very interested to know, becuase when I left things were expensive but not drastic, and in the last year I've begun to hear stories and news about alternatives to driving. Here's what I'm hearing:
-Cops in major US cities are walking beats instead of driving (I imagine Officer Krupke, or a new slew of jobs for my current countrymen)
-US and other countries have been forced to stop hoarding oil (the way my Accounting dept hoards office supplies)
-Slugging has reached all-time highs in major cities and outskirts
-Online gas price trackers and widgets are cropping up and taking hold (like gasbuddy)
-Folks did not travel over Memorial Day weekend
And yet, remarkably, car sales are not down, bike sales are not up, and Americans are not saving any money or calories by walking anywhere at all--that I can find. But please, you're there, I'm not--tell me what you're seeing.
Over here I am excited that I can forego the gas crunch. I take an electric train to work and everything else is accomplished à pied. I am envious of this city planning and I wish the US were layed out for foot traffic, but sadly it's not. Growing up in the Rust Belt, I understand how the heartland operates--we're drivers. We drive to the grocery, drive to the gym, drive in circles and circles to find a good parking spot at the mall (so that we can walk around for a few hours...but not outside. never outside.) I know we're just not built for gas efficiency, so I wonder how else we can possibly make cuts to our fuel consumption.
In the meantime I'll suffer my $1200 plane ticket, up double from what I paid in 2005, but that will be one of the few losses I take to the crude oil punch to the economic gut of the world. Here prices have been high for a long, long time and the way of life has shifted to accommodate it. There's the Eurorail and hugely popular national/international bus routes. There's walkable villages, towns and cities. Cars are tiny and SUVs are rare and widely frowned upon. People carpool, people share rides, people take taxis and bikes. As I said: As many bikes in Amsterdam as people. The bike lanes are generous and well mapped. Here, the gas prices are not forgiven. There's been time enough for a paradigm shift to alternative means.
Which, I think, is great.
I've started riding a bike as much as possible. The other day I rode 16 miles and I loved it, except for the roads and sidewalks being crap to ride on. I wish we had an electric train :(
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