According to The Los Angeles Times, “Americans are getting serious about using less gasoline.” To wit: one James Eric Freedner. The Sun Valley legal secretary got so fed up with high gasoline prices that he tucked his Toyota Tacoma in the garage, switched to motorcycle commuting, stopped driving to the beach on weekends and began grouping errands. "The price [of gas] was just eating up what I earned,” Freedner kvetched. “This is the best thing I can do to make ends meet." Point taken. "Raise the price high enough, and you will see that there is a lot more that people can do,” says Edward Leamer, an economist at UCLA. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) recently released study, The Effects of Gasoline Prices on Driving Behavior and Vehicle Markets, asserts rising gas prices has motorists taking fewer trips, driving slower and paying premiums for the most fuel-efficient vehicles. Your tax money hard at work.
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Hey, where I am, gas is going for $7 a gallon. It does change habits. I bike to work, and although it saves a lot, I prefer to bike to work anyway. But as for other car trips, planning is required. Back in the day when I lived in the USA in the ’90s, a car would be used every time I had to go some where, and I’d even take the car just looking for something to do.
The bright side of not using the car so often is less time in traffic jams and it makes the occasion more special… not an everyday affair.
More proof that CAFE is a ridiculous way to go about reducing fuel consumption.
Yeah, it would suck, but most American’s aren’t going to change unless their wallets make them.
Raise the fuel taxes if you wanna get serious about saving gasoline. Extend that to natural gas for heating homes as well.
Thanks for the link. I have my reading cut out for me!
The great thing is that increasing fuel prices have also dramatically reduced greenhouse gas emissions in Europe.
Or has it?
http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/europe-falling-behind-in-kyoto-carbon-targets/2007/06/15/1181414548676.html
Ride a bike. Down Gratiot. In Detroit. In February. Ok Freedner.
Raising gas prices hasn’t changed my habits at all. And I’d appreciate it if people would stop throwing conservation ideas down my throat. Sorry, but February in northern Ohio doesn’t lend itself to smarts and motorcycles.
And increase my taxes and I’ll just donate less of my paycheck.
Where I live, we are already facing a tax increase request for the city income tax, the school district wants higher taxes, and the County Mental Retardation Board wants a tax increase. I think the Senior Citizen Board wants one too.
What I’m getting at is no matter how much you pay in taxes, it is never enough. All it does is take more money out of your pocket, and give Big Brother more resources in which to control and dominate your life.