The linked article boo-hoos how much of household budgets gasoline is costing us - but also says the average price of gas is close to $4 a gallon.
It never mentions that at $4 a gallon, $368 is* 92 gallons a month!* You fucking idiots are using 3 gallons a day! On average! What the fucking fuck are you doing, that you average 3 gallons a day in gas usage?
Don’t give me hard luck stories about this one guy you know who has to commute 50 miles each way and it has to be in his car - this is the average usage by a family.
I’ve got an idea for gas price control. Next Tuesday, we will show the gas companies we mean business. On that one day, [del]boycott the gas stations and don’t buy gas[/del] STOP BLAMING THE GAS COMPANIES AND DON’T USE 3 FUCKING GALLONS THAT DAY! OR THE NEXT OR THE NEXT! AND BUY A MORE FUEL EFFICIENT CAR AND GET OFF YOUR FAT ASS AND WALK OR BIKE TO THE STORE EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE! Post this as your facebook status if you agree!
I can’t see your location, bup, but I’d like to take this opportunity to point out that - while I agree that many people are lazy slobs who burn too much nonrenewable resources etc. etc. - there are large swaths of America where you simply cannot “walk or bike to the store.” Exhibit A: most of Houston, TX, if you need a concrete (ha!!) example.
No sidewalks + homes and stores are zoned to be miles apart = drive, or starve.
Face it, a huge percentage of our country was built during the post-WWII boom, when fuel was cheap and cars were king. Now, we’re stuck with that legacy.
It’s not that unusual, I think. I drive 20 miles a day, roundtrip. That’s pretty standard in Phoenix, which is only now trying to beef up its public transit infrastructure. My car gets 17-20 miles to the gallon, so I use up a gallon a day. Extend that to a working-class family, so you’ve got two people driving that much each day, plus all the errands and trips you make as a family, and let’s not even count families with teenagers…yeah, I can see 3 gallons/day on average.
It’s an extraordinary amount – and, if it’s an average, that means there are a few households using twice as much.
And, of course, it’s by choice. Partly by collective choice, e.g., zoning that means that nobody in the city can walk to the shops; and partly by individual choice, e.g., choosing to live in the countryside and work in the city.
Mom commutes 30 miles each way to work. Dad shuttles the kids to school, runs errands, gets groceries, picks up the kids, gets them to soccer practice and music lessons, then home. Easily 60 miles right there. So if both vehicles get 40mpg, they are burning 3 gallons a day. Most cars in this country don’t get that good mileage.
My SIL drives 50 miles a day to teach at an inner-city school, in a neighborhood where she would prefer not to live. My mom drives 20 miles a day to babysit my niece, because my SIL can’t afford day care on her teacher’s salary.
If you assume a combined MPG of just 22 miles per gallon, that’s 24,200 miles per year. EPA claims the average car travels 12,000 miles per year; so if we’re talking about a two-car household, this is about right. A city/highway combined MPG of 22 is about right for a mid-sized sedan.
The Bureau of Transporation Statistics says the average US worker has a commute of 30 miles per day (just 15 miles each way), or 7500 miles per year. If both parents work outside the home, then I guess the answer to “what the fucking fuck are you doing” is commuting, mostly. After that, it’s the usual errands - grocery shopping, bar hopping, buying crack, taking the kids to the mines, etc.
Eh, we’ve been underpaying for gasoline for years anyway due to our Wal-Mart discount. It sucks that the chickens have come home to roost upon my generation, but…it was inevitable.
I’ll just become independently wealthy so I don’t have to go anywhere. You slackers are just choosing to have to drive to your jobs. If you really cared about the environment and reducing your fuel costs, you’d be rich.
I would say most (if not all) of the people I know live further from their jobs than they need to because they wanted bigger houses. I used to live in DC, and there your options were live close to work in an apartment/condo or have a typical suburban house and spend 2 hours commuting each day. Guess which one most people went for. Guess which one they’d go for if gas were more expensive.
Back about 13 years ago, I commuted 100 miles each way to work. I consumed zero gallons of fuel doing that, because I caught an electric train each way (plus walked a bit at each end of the journey). Of course, I don’t have that sort of option where I live now: I live in a larger metro area, but one which has no passenger trains of any kind. (13 years ago I was living in Australia.)
When the company I was working for moved their offices I spent a year and a half commuting 150km/day. Between fuel (about 250 liters/month) and tolls our commuting costs were almost $900/month. There were absolutely no options for public transit from the two locations and no options for telecommuting either. We were planning to stay until our daughter finished highschool and to ensure that the staff cuts were finished before we moved. Daughter ended up doing her senior year at a new school because we just couldn’t take the time or expense any longer. We were lucky it only took a few months to sell our house and find a new one.
