Gas Rage In Staten Island

Anything that will get the typical fat american outta his SUV is a good thing. Fat america has been set up by the car and oil industry and now are a gonna get screwed.

Qui si parla Campagnolo blurted out:

I think the American car industry set itself up. They were already offering extreme bargains before Katrina took out so much petroleum capacity. They are in for a royal screwing now.

Austin

You're probably gonna see some DEEP discounts on the whale-size SUVs (though they'll probably make it up by increasing the price of the econoboxes).

Hopefully this "crisis" will last long enough to make a real difference in people's attitude about what constitutes "reasonable transportation". Maybe some of 'em will actually figure out that bikes are a good option?

Mark Hickey Habanero Cycles

of the $795 ti frame

That would be a good outcome, but if the general populous on your side of the pond is anything like the general populous over here; it won't. When we had the fuel blockades a few years ago, there were *serious* fuel shortages. Cycling was wonderful - as the number of cars on the roads decreased

*noticably* as people really did limit their motoring. As soon as the blockades stopped - back to normal...

This morning I filled the car with diesel. Price 94.9p/litre. If my mathematics is correct, this equates to £4.32 per UK gallon, or £3.58 per US gallon, which is roughly $6.55 a US gallon and this is normal price over here. People are not noticeably using their cars any less as fuel prices go up - people cut back in other areas first, I think. The filling station forecourt was just as full as normal on a Friday morning.

Cheers, helen s

snipped-for-privacy@backpacker.com wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@g49g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:

Oddly enough, Staten Island has some of the best cycling in the city, including what I think is the city's highest street, Todt Hill Road (colloquially, "Boot Hill.") However, it's pretty much a circular trip. The main bridge heading north and east, the mighty Verazano, named after the first intrepid pioneer to attempt delivering pizza to the Dutch, has no bicycle facilities. Of the two bridges south and west into New Jersey, the Goethals Bridge and the Outerbridge Crossing (actually named after a guy named Outerbridge, and Outerbridge Bridge doesn't quite scan) only the Goethals has a sidewalk and that's been closed for SEVEN YEARS with no sign of it opening anytime soon. There is a nice bridge due north to Bayonne ( as seen in War of the Worlds) but to continue a trip south from there means a massive detour. You do, however, get a free boat ride, bicycles more than welcom, on the famous Staten Island Ferry. There's just no other way out except back the way you came. No wonder it's the city's highest percentage of households owning cars. (52% of NYC households do not even own a car.)

So this guy really is pretty much stuck.

--ag

How about getting ANWR on line. We Alaskan's are trying to help....but a few environmental groups keeps us from doing just that!

JIM

So, how do you get around without a car since I'm sure you don't want to be identified as a fat American who has been set up by the car and oil industry?

Personally, I ride a bike to work. But I would like to extend a heartfelt thanks to those who continue to rumble around in their gas-hog SUVs. My Exxon-Mobil stock is really doing well this week. It's better than selling crack: I think the gas junkies are hooked harder.

CC

Yes, the skyrocketing cost of crude will no doubt force SUV lovers to confront the cost of their vice; however, we fool ourselves to think that gas guzzling status seekers alone will suffer the consequences of this latest round of petroleum price shocks. Expect a rise in the cost of fresh food, everything and anything that utilizes plastic, petroleum based textiles, the transport of people and goods - including those lovely bikes from Asia and Europe; in short, expect the price of most everything to rise to some degree.

More worrisome is how typical surburbanites -- I believe this demographic comprises 45 percent of the North American population -- will cope. The very structure of their communities is based upon the personal auto and availability of inexpensive fuel - an assumption that's proving to be increasingly tenuous these days. Indeed suburbs may prove to be this society's greatest misallocation of resources, so profligate are they in their energy use.

The anticipation of oil price shocks deepening in the future doesn't discourage me though: I'm an optimist. Perhaps this will usher in a time of reckoning and, hopefully, intelligent energy generation and conservation initiatives will gain more favour -- modest, but certainly not least among them is the humble bicycle.

Luke

How would that help? It would be a very small proportion of US petrochemical production, from everything I've read.

The best answer is to reduce consumption, and that isn't that difficult. Most production goes to gasoline, and a lot of gasoline is used for the short drives easily replaced by pedal power.

Ted

The Staten Island Ferry is free;>).

Thanks! Marc Sindell Twin City Subaru Montpelier, Vermont

I'll tell that to Art who worked on my kids' bikes. He got along pretty well on his artificial leg since Korea, but lately he's needed to put his fat wheelchair into his fat SUV and drive his fat ass around visiting nursing homes as a volunteer feeder.

Art would probably love to meet you, he swings a mean softball bat.

You're right -- if the leading indicator is the number of these things parked alongside the county roads with the "For Sale" signs in the windows.

Damn skippy they will. I'll bet it's pretty hard to find a 2004 Toyota Camry.

No. The same gentleman that taught us that "an armed society is a polite society" also taught TANSTAAFL, meaning There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch. The tax payer pays for the ferry's fuel whether he wants to or not - kind'a like a mugging. Be safe, go armed.

They are practically paying people to take them off the lot now!

Ken

that there is only enough oil there for about ten years. Plus I have also heard / read that the real problem really has to do with supply and demand, the supply that the refineries can produce. They were operating at 95% capacity BEFORE the storm. Now Katrina knocks a few off line for a while the MV driving world is not going to like the results.

Ken

I live in NJ. I've seen gas lines and stations run out of gas at $2.78 yesterday (which became $3.05 this morning). The highest I saw today was $3.35.

I am a reformed gasaholic. About a year ago I traded my 12 mpg Dodge Ram

1500 pickup for a Ford Focus (25mpg). I then also purchased my father's Prius (45mpg for real). I gloat when I see the SUV drivers filling their tanks. There is no need for at least 75% of the SUVs. Especially in the NY/NJ metro area, we get very little snow. People in the 60's survived with rear wheel drive. Front wheel drive is adequate for our weather.

A minivan is much more practical and fuel efficient. Call me a radical, but I think gasoline should be taxed at least $1.00 per gallon. Everyone who has a vehicle which gets over 25mpg would get the money back as a tax credit, the others can go bankrupt with their SUV's. Everyone I know who has an SUV says that they will never give it up no matter how high the gas goes. I guess they will like having a stylish paperweight!

Here in deep southern Illinois, gas prices are all over the place.

$2.69 in one town (and that one town only) $3.09 to $3.69 is the range everywhere else. Some of our much more rural gas stations are out of gas, the Hucks chain has been saying when they run out of what is in the ground they are locking the pumps until this flail blows over.

I just traded off my pickup for a Pontiac Vibe. 30+mpg real combined driving, over 34mpg on interstate.

I think I agree with you here. If some want the luxury of a SUV, let them pay for that luxury.

What are you, some kinda communist?