High gas prices are here to stay, and Americans are finally realizing they need to do something about their car gas mileage pain. But the reality is that in the U.S. we’ve been pretty fortunate to have experienced low gas prices for so long. The last major gas shortage was in the 70′s which many of us don’t even remember. Now we’re catching up to what have been standard gas prices in Europe, but our lifestyles and city infrastructures are not built to live the European way.
Unfortunately, the U.S. transportation system pales in comparison to Europe’s and we rely too heavily on our cars and our belief that we would always have reasonable gas prices. While many big cities have a rail system, they are completely unmatched in comparison to Europe’s.
The Chicago Transit Authority, for example, is an unreliable system. Trains and buses are rarely on schedule, stations are constantly closed for maintenance, and what seem to be unnecessary thirty minute stops in the middle of a trip has become the norm. In Chicago you just cannot plan to be anywhere at a specific time, whether traveling by air, car or rail.
At least big cities have these options to choose from in order to fight soaring gas prices, and you could feasibly walk everywhere. Several of my neighbors have never owned a car and have never taken a driver’s test. Everything they need is within the neighborhood, and trains, buses and taxis allow them to get anywhere they need to - given they have the time.
Lately I’ve seen more people walking and riding their bikes (which has lead to more biking accidents with
more inexperienced bikers on the roads). But in rural areas there are no options from driving other than to walk or ride your bike, and that could be a mile of biking or hiking just to get to the grocery store - and carrying everything is not even an option.
Other people are trying to build their own Water4Gas system to double their mileage by turning their cars into HHO burning vehicles.
This must be a bigger problem for small town folks or those living in sprawled-out suburbs.
So what are our options? What things are you doing to fight car gas mileage pain and soaring gas prices?
11:33 pm on July 29th, 2008 1
Just bought a Prius & now have 3000 miles at 49 mpg. Working on
electric assist bicycle.
11:51 pm on July 30th, 2008 2
I’m not willing to buy a new car as my current car is already
pretty low priced as it is from the mid 90s. I’m doing all I can to
change my driving technique and it really is working on getting the
mileage up