Kevin's Watch

Here, on other boards and in conversations, I've been hearing a lot about how high gas prices have been affecting businesses, family life, and people's lifestyles in general. I was just wondering what people here have been doing to reduce their gas spending, and how your lives have changed...

Unfortunately, due to winter road conditions and my job, I simply can't give up my SUV. People in my family and I have had a few experiences where driving an SUV has literally saved our lives...I have, however, gotten a newer, slightly smaller SUV, and I have been driving much slower lately (the speed limit, as opposed to my former 20km+ over ). Also, I ride my bike and take public transportation whenever I can (I've found I actually quite enjoy the ride on my city's trains).

Well, have at it!

As I mentioned elsewhere, I traded in my 15.5mpg V8 4Runner (great truck, crappy mileage) on a 34mpg I4 Accord. I have to drive a pickup truck for work, but now the only driving I do in it is for work, for anything else I take the Accord.

Gas isn't all that expensive......Yet. But there's little chance it's going to go down anytime soon.

*grin* Maybe not all that expensive there (as you said, yet)...here, it's almost $1 per litre...and that's low compared to places like BC and the Maritimes!

And it's what, 4 litres/gallon?

Something like that, yeah...

We freaked out in New York because gas was $2.75/gallon near where Danlo's parents live. Then we got home, and the gas station by our house was over $2.80/gallon.

So far it hasn't affected us particularly, but I can see my husband eventually having to charge his customers more because everything will cost him more.

Driving my Chevy Trailblazer SUV (Which gets horrible mileage) I go through about $90US - $135US a week for gas.

AlgorathFBS wrote:Driving my Chevy Trailblazer SUV (Which gets horrible mileage) I go through about $90US - $135US a week for gas.

ouch

My V8 GMC Sierra gets about 18 mpg. I don't have to drive alot, so usually a tank of gas lasts about 2-3 weeks for me. I filled the tank up last weekend for $60. I don't see myself trading my truck for a smaller vehicle anytime soon.

I'm not allowed to drive (medical condition) so have it cheap with public transport. However, family have to pay alot.

It hasn't affected us much as of yet. I do try to come up with a itenerary for errands now vs just driving all over town, more time with the yellow pages letting "my fingers do the walking", and my husband is seriously considering riding his bike to work once it cools down some. I would imagine our weekend jaunts to Birmingham or Atlanta "just for the hell of it" will become less frequent also.

*nods* I've been doing even grocery shopping at my favourite mall (which has a Safeway inside it), while I'm there to pick up school supplies, etc...I love one-stop shopping.

The reason I jumped so quickly to dump the 4Runner was to avoid the eventual panic dumping of SUVs and retain some value. It worked.

Is it still true that you get a tax break on vehicles over a certain weight in some states?

Actually, here in Maryland they got rid of that. They also charge twice as much for registration for vehicles over a certain weight.

I changed what driving habits I could a long time ago, so there's not much I can do. Public transportation's out for work because the bus doesn't go by there. I'll have to be extra carfeul to make it to the Metro on time for school, though. I used to just drive if I was running late, but that's no longer an option. Still costs $10 for a round trip to school on the train, but it'll cost about $15 to drive that same distance. I stopped seeing my horse every other day months ago... gas was already getting a bit pricey for my wallet back then. If I see him once a week, I already feel lucky. Haven't gone to any of the distant parks I like, either. Basically I just sit at home and try to resist the urge to flee for the farthest, least populated corner of the county.

I quit the KW chess championship due to the rising price of oil.

Hasn't affected me a bit. I drive a Saturn.

Actually, I'd have to drive three or four times as much as I do for the cost of gas to equal what I spend on car payments + insurance. If I cut back my driving (and I don't do much now), my cost per mile would actually go up.

I don't drive. Muahahahaha!

well, being a bit of a tree hugger myself, so I find myself against any sort of SUV or big-mega truck for city driving
I drive 'an affordable mid-size' with half decent gas consumption. If I had the funds to afford an SUV I'd be getting a hybrid... But that's a different topic.
Yes, gas prices have affected us alot. As said before by the lovely lady from the great white north, at prices hovering around $1.00/litre, when they were bout 0.60/litre last year, it's pretty hard NOT to be affected. I take TTC (local transit) but my wife needs the car to get where she is going and no one from her work lives in our area, so pooling is not an option.

When are they going to invent cars that run on water, or teleportation pods....