It affects me very little. I live on-campus at my university, so the only time I use gas is to buy groceries, volunteer at a local animal shelter, and go to my parent’s house on the weekends. Next semester when I move into an apartment with a friend I’l start to notice, (aka we’l coordinate schedules and carpool) otherwise Im not too worried about prices.
Not much. I have a 10-mile roundtrip to work and don’t go out much on the weekends. My car gets about 22-25mph so I can go several weeks before I have to fill up.
In 1998, I began going to school 56 miles from home. In 2001, I had finished school and started a job that was 58 miles from home. In 2003, I quit my job and went to another school that was 52 miles from home. In February, I got a job exactly 10 miles from home. This afternoon, I took my last final exam at school and I will no longer be traveling 500+ miles per week. I can live in a 10 mile circle as long as I want to…and I bought a new bicycle last month!!! 
Not terribly. I have enough disposable income to absorb the price increase; I just cut back somewhere else. I only fill up once every two weeks, so I have one less lunch or dinner out every two weeks. No big deal. I wouldn’t consider it to hit me hard until I can’t buy food or make rent.
Not too much. My Scion gets at least 30 mpg city, and my office is only 9 miles from my apartment. I fill up once every three weeks just because I don’t like to go below a quarter of a tank. If I need to go somewhere within a mile or two of my apartment, I walk.
I was just thinking today that when I moved to South Florida in December 2001, gas cost about $1.09 a gallon. I guess those days are long gone.
Hardly. When it rains, I take the train to work, and other days I ride my bicycle. With the readily available public transit and the fact that parking is far more expensive (and scarcer) than fuel, it’s not even worthwhile to own a car in Tokyo, IMO, so I don’t.
As for secondary effects of rising gas prices, inflation here is still extremely low, so ‘no’ on that count as well.
Which is further proof that people are generally idiotic. If your car runs better on premium gasoline, now’s the time to do it, believe it or not.
That 20 cents between 87 and 93 octane is only something like a 7% increase when 87 is $3 per gallon. When gas gets cheaper, say $2 per gallon, that 20 cents becomes a 10% increase.
As for me, the gas prices are irritating, mostly because I get annoyed paying $56 per tank, but I can afford it without having to do anything in the way of financial readjustments- it just comes out of my disposable cash.
It’s now $40 to fill my Kia Spectra. I do live pretty close to paycheck to paycheck, so it hurts a bit. I go through about a tank a week, and the $10/week increase is noticeable.
I’m feeling a little squeezed. I work about 15 miles away from home and public transport isn’t an option. My husband is a full-time student, so money is a bit tight in general right now. Fortunately, both of our cars get good mileage. I’ve been spending less on other unnecessary expenses (lunches out, new clothes) to manage.
I have a 54 mile round trip commute, but car pool most days so not a hardship for me. I work at a small college in a very rural area, and most of the students have a considerable commute, and are living paycheck, with low paying part time jobs. A lot of them are finding it a hardship. It is even worse for many of them, as part-time jobs tend to have changing work hours, and make car pooling much more difficult than for those of us who have a set schedule.
Not terribly. My big truck gets crappy mileage and I have a long commute so our fuel bills were pretty hefty already. We have quite a bit of discretionary fuel use, what with RV’ing and boating. We just cut back a bit on the recreational trips (just keep 'em closer to home) and our fuel bill is unchanged from last year.
Only in the sense that gas used to be just low level noise on the credit card bill and now it’s a much more significant percentage of the tally. I can afford it, but I was a grad student long enough that old habits remain, and I get grumpy shelling out $35.00 for a tank three or four times a month.
Hitting me hard? Not really… I drive about 120 miles round trip every day for work and now that costs me about $75.00 a week. I figure I’m spending $25.00 a week more than I was when gas was $2.00 per gallon.
It’s not bad for me. I’m a houseleech and I don’t really go wandering off to very many far away places. I detest shopping of any sort, and I just make a weekly run to the grocery store, out to see friends and/or family, appointments and such. So, I hardly even notice the price of gas these days. I don’t have to fill up my car but maybe once every 3 weeks or so.
Not really hitting me hard, but only because I recently changed the way I drive. In late January I got a speeding ticket, so I decided that I’d make a conscious effort to reduce my speed. I have a 52 mile RT commute for my job, of which about 48 is highway driving and traffic is routinely running 70-75 mph in a 55 zone. I decided to set my cruise control at around 63, rather than the 75 I used to drive while pinned to the left lane, and was amazed to discover how much better gas mileage I get. All else being equal, I’m consistently getting 30 mpg whereas I used to get 24 or 25. So I’m happy that I can now go an additional 75-90 miles on a tank. It only adds a few minutes to my drive, but I definitely feel that the gas savings are well worth it.
I stay over to the right and watch people zipping by me, and I think “heh. suckers.”
Well, two months ago, I had a 6-mile commute, and gas was about $2.09/gal around here. I spent about $100 per month on gasoline.
I got laid off in March, and later accepted a job 80 miles away. I am now spending (at current prices) about $450 per month on gas.
Yes, it’s a huge crunch.
Sounds to me like the ones most affected are people who drive gas guzzlers long distances to crappy jobs. Sucks to be you! Sorry.
I was unfortunate enough to be in Florida on vacation when Katrina hit last year, and had to pay $3-something/gallon for ~1000 miles. It cost about $30 extra to get home.
::shrugs::
I don’t see a huge drop-off on summer travel, though I’m sure the newsbrayers will be bleating on about it.
I try to take my bike everywhere, but I already did that before, so nothing’s changed. I do wish a little harder that there was public transportation from Edmonton to Nisku.
My Chevy Malibu gets 26-28mpg, 40 miles/day (a consequence of buying to fit my 6’5" size), but gas prices here are (look out window, do some math) a couple of pennies under the equivalent of $4/gallon, and life goes on.
I’m hoping higher gas prices in the 'States translates to new North American car designs with uber-high gas mileage (I’m talking 60 to 150+ mpg, not lame 3X mpg). I’d test-drive a Smart, but if I hit my head on the roof, my dreams would be shattered. 
I went into the gas station and asked for $5 worth of gas. The clerk farted and gave me a receipt.
No, and if it were I would make up for it by economizing in other ways, such as cancelling cable television. If I were already living without cable television, I’d start eating more meals prepared by myself at home rather than buying lunch.