Ah yes, the whole “Americans are fat LOL” card. Hey, guess who else is catching up?
I’m from New York, so I appreciate the wonders of good public transportation, and took myself everywhere when I was a kid. But where I live now it is not so easy. Kind of hard to get public transportation to the barn where my daughter rode, and the only cello teacher around was pretty far away.
One of the reason for so much driving is that parents are scared. I live across the street from the elementary school, our neighborhood is very good, but tons of parents drive their kids, few of whom live that far away. On the other hand, an Iraqi mother was shot and killed by a lunatic walking her kids back from our school, so maybe they have a point.
Well, that’s just it. If a family found themselves in your situation, the kid would not get to ride or play the cello. This would be seen as a natural consequence of where the family chose to settle.
I’m critizing your choice, I think it’s wonderful your kid has those oportunities. But I still have trouble wrapping my head around the thought process: “We live where nothing is available”=“We have to drive the kids to activities all the time”.
“We live where nothing is available”=“The kids don’t get to do stuff” seems so much more straightforward.
In case it’s not clear, I’m American. I think we are too fat, and the fact that Europe’s catching up doesn’t mean we’re not. I also think we bitch too much instead of changing our lifestyles. Fatness and gas consumption are mostly related as parallels in a learned helplessness of Americanism.
doesn’t matter.
and I’m sure you’re such a bastion of perfection.
but it does indicate that obesity is a Western problem, not an American problem; your self-loathing notwithstanding.
Oh, there is plenty available where we live. As I mentioned, the elementary school is across the street, and the junior high and high school are within easy walking distance. We can (and I have) walked to my old car dealer, a mall, a major shopping center, two big groceries, the BART, and more restaurants than we can ever eat at. We picked this place because it was close to so much. However, no one can be in walking distance of everything, and sometimes a few car trips are going to be necessary. Both our kids are grown, and their lives are significantly better for having these opportunities. Not cello so much, but riding definitely. And if we had lived near the barn we’d have to drive everywhere else.
But this is more parenting style than cost of gas.
3 gallons a day does seem excessive. Even before I got my hybrid I wasn’t using that much, and I pretty much drive everywhere. Of course, I’m single so I would be below the family average.
To be fair, some people do have long commutes and sometimes that’s because of the current job market.
One complaint I do have is people commuting by themselves in massive SUVs, although I do think I’m seeing less of that lately.
A 30 mile commute here in LA typically takes an hour during normal business hours with a couple of low traffic windows.
There are a ton of people that use their car for work and the parameters of that work often dictate vehicles larger than a breadbox.
Furthermore, there are a lot of commuting 2 earner families with children, which means it’s not just the commute.
Could we as a country do better? Of course. But you can’t do everything better. If you decide to optimize on gas consumption, you’ll typically end up spending more of your time getting the same job done. So you can either have breakfast with the kids and make sure they have their homework in their pack, or you can spend the extra time to walk to the bus.
You are in the Seattle area and saying the bus system now sucks? What happened? When I lived up there, it was the default way to get to work, particularly downtown.
I can’t use public transportation because there ISN’T ANY.
But I am working from home, so many days I don’t use any gas at all.
Bullshit.
Bullshit. We burn gas because we CAN. Yes, if you price gas in the US at Euro rates, you will get a slow shift. In some cases one parent might stay home if the after tax money after commuting costs gets too high.
My gas consumption is due to math, plain and simple. My current job is 35 miles each way. It pays quite well. When I took it, I did the match of the price of gas vs the number of miles against the after tax money I would get, and it was worth it. Even at $5.00 gas I come out ahead of my last job.
Would I change jobs if offered closer - SURE.
Can I sell my house and move closer - nope, then my wife’s commute gets worse.
Can I drive a car with better mileage? Math again - if a car is paid for, how many YEARS does it take to pay off the cost of a newer car?
Your rant makes it sound like “Americans” are ignoring bike lanes, short commutes, and easily purchased high mpg cars. People ARE switching to migher mpg cars as their older ones are ready for replacement (I switched from a Lincoln Continental getting 20 to a Ford Fusion Hybrid getting 35, but not until the Lincoln was fully ready for replacement). People CAN’T just move, unless they like being renters.
You act as if it’s people’s moral duty to save gas, and we’re all a bunch of hypocrites for not doing it.
Is it my duty to save gas or something? Are you pissed at Americans because they’ve made a choice to spend money on gas in order to live and work where they like? Is it bad that I don’t want to change? Are we obligated to change our lives to reduce the demand for gas so that you can save money at the pump? Sorry, I don’t think so.
I hate public transportation. Sorry, but I much prefer to be in my car, with air conditioning, comfortable leather seats, and a nice sound system, rather than sitting on a plastic bench in a bus next to some homeless dude on my way to work every day.
And you know what? I actually like driving. It’s fun. Some nights, when I’m too tired to keep working, but too alert to go to sleep, I’ll get in my car and drive into the mountains for an hour. I probably burn at least 3 gallons whenever I do that. Usually more, because I like driving fast. Guess what? I’m not going to stop.
It’s an urban planning problem, which is in turn a function of previously super-cheap petrol that provided incentives to design communities around automobiles with a emphasis on separating land uses. Decisions that were pretty good ideas at the time…well…separation of incompatible land uses is still a good idea…but have since been stressed by the increasing energy costs.
No one likes to spend this kind of $$ on gasoline but in many ways they are forced to. The problem (IMHO) is that there isn’t a lot of will power to make the physical planning changes required, people like their boat in the yard and would rather eat their own legs than pony up for better public transit (buses, trains etc.)
In a twisted and evil kind of way (and simplified, I might add) sprawl actually makes cities affordable. Good luck trying to buy a place in Downtown Vancouver if you are an average professional without an inheritance or other source of income. You’ll probably have to live out in the suburbs and eat the gas prices.
Who said I want to save money?
On behalf of our descendants, fuck you, short-sighted asshole.
Just converted the $4 a gallon into £ per litre, and I can’t stop giggling…
The cheapest place locally, at the pump, is 134.9p, or about double the ‘high’ price you guys are paying.
And Absolute? Yeah. It sort of is, if not a ‘moral duty’ per se, bloody common sense to not throw a finite resource away for no reason, at least until a useable alternative is found. Possibly you expect to be dead before gas is too expensive to just stick in a car, I don’t.
I rather doubt that your descendants will be driving vehicles powered by oil. OTOH, this is apparently yet another time when those of us here now are expected to give things up so that your (generic) kids will have a better life. Fuck you.
There is a simple solution to America’s gas consumption problem, already mentioned. Just add a buck a gallon or so to the price in taxes, and use the taxes for public transportation or other ways of reducing gas usage. California has very high gas prices relative to the rest of the country and we’ve held consumption pretty steady - more Priuses here than just about everywhere. Our public transportation is also relatively expensive due to lack of ridership.
When I visited Hilversum for work, we decided to go into Amsterdam for dinner, and just to see it. We walked from the hotel to the train station, and took the train in. When we returned it was late, we weren’t absolutely sure where the hotel was, so we took a cab. The cab trip - which was about a kilometer - cost more than one way train fare. With that kind of fee structure even we would get efficient.
Problem is - this scheme doesn’t work nearly so well in the middle of nowhere, and we have lots of middle of nowhere in the US.
somebody just started college.
My mistake. So your kids can save money.
Why do you care about me saving gas? So you (and your kids, friends and relatives apparently) can continue to use it and afford it. Don’t make it seem any more noble than that.
We already have an alternative to gas. Cars using batteries or fuel cells, powered by energy produced by nuclear power. It hasn’t happened yet because coal, oil and gas are still, actually, pretty cheap. And because hypocritical, ignorant people are opposed to nuclear power. But we’re getting there, and it will happen, as long as well-intentioned government interference doesn’t distort the free market too much first.