21 replies to this topic

[AriPVD]

I don't really drive much, so this doesn't affect me...but I'm curious:

How high do gas prices need to go to curb driving?  It MUST be starting to pinch if you drive 50 miles for work everyday, or need to get into a car to drive 10 miles for every errand.  Any enlightenment would be helpful.

[basachs]

AriPVD, on May 31 2007, 02:21 PM, said:

I don't really drive much, so this doesn't affect me...but I'm curious:

How high do gas prices need to go to curb driving?  It MUST be starting to pinch if you drive 50 miles for work everyday, or need to get into a car to drive 10 miles for every errand.  Any enlightenment would be helpful.

I think a lot higher than what they are now. I drive about 70 miles round trip a day for work. However the gas price increase only costs me about 30-40 bucks more a week, and I just eat that cost. It is necessary for my job. For me, it has not really been a pinch yet. If gas reached 7 bucks a gallon? Yeah that would start to hurt. But again, would that curb my driving? Not really, as 90% of my driving is necessary for my job.

[runawayjim]

there's a lot of discussion about this in the main UP coffee house.  the consensus is that gas prices would need to sharply increase in a short amount of time (like increase by $1-2 overnight).  otherwise, people, as has happened, get accustomed to the higher prices and just learn to deal with it and accept it rather than actually make changes to their driving or lifestyle.  so basically it would have to hit $4 a gallon tomorrow, but if it slowly increases something like $0.01 every few days, it's not going to make much of an impact as people just accept it.

[oak]

AriPVD, on May 31 2007, 02:21 PM, said:

I don't really drive much, so this doesn't affect me...but I'm curious:

How high do gas prices need to go to curb driving?  It MUST be starting to pinch if you drive 50 miles for work everyday, or need to get into a car to drive 10 miles for every errand.  Any enlightenment would be helpful.

My husband and I share one car.  He walks to work downtown and I take the train to Boston a few days a week.  When I visit clients, I have to drive 75-100 miles round trip and I rent a car from Enterprise on Weybosset.  I turn in receipts for the rental car and the gas and am reimbursed.  I travel  2-3 days/week.  If I paid for the rental car and the gas, it would be between $500-600 out of pocket every month.  This arrangement is much better than using my own car for work.

[Cotuit]

What's a car?  

[runawayjim]

Cotuit, on May 31 2007, 04:15 PM, said:

What's a car?  

i've been waiting for you to come into this thread and make a comment like that.  

[Frankie811]

basachs, on May 31 2007, 02:34 PM, said:

the gas price increase only costs me about 30-40 bucks more a week

Only 30-40 bucks!!!???  You say that so casually. They must be paying you well if you can absorb higher gas prices without batting an eye, and eat out several times a week.  

[Cotuit]

Gas prices on the Vineyard this weekend were around $3.80.

[basachs]

Frankie811, on May 31 2007, 04:22 PM, said:

Only 30-40 bucks!!!???  You say that so casually. They must be paying you well if you can absorb higher gas prices without batting an eye, and eat out several times a week.  

Has to do with the fact that I am more than likely a yuppie, gentrifying scumbag who is known - known I tell you! - to hate children.

Seriously though, I do bat an eye but it is a necessary expense so I do not think about it much. I do work harder in other areas to save money so that our lifestyle is preserved. Eating out is an activity we enjoy very much and we try to keep that going if we can. If it gets to the point where we cant, we wont.

Edited by basachs, 31 May 2007 - 02:57 PM.

[basachs]

Cotuit, on May 31 2007, 04:22 PM, said:

Gas prices on the Vineyard this weekend were around $3.80.

I was at Mohegan last weekend with friends and gas on the reservation was 4.25 a gallon for regular. I realize this is an anomaly, but it was amazing. They get your money coming and going (for those that dont know, the gas station is on the way out of the reservation)

[runawayjim]

basachs, on May 31 2007, 05:00 PM, said:

I was at Mohegan last weekend with friends and gas on the reservation was 4.25 a gallon for regular. I realize this is an anomaly, but it was amazing. They get your money coming and going (for those that dont know, the gas station is on the way out of the reservation)

that gas station is the biggest rip off in the area.  i used to frequent the casino because some friends of mine lived 5 min from it and hang out there.  i generally never got gas in that area, but when i did, it was on route 12 somewhere (you have to pass the casino from 395 and go over the bridge to get to 12).  when i lived in CT, i was lucky to have some of the cheapest gas in the state in the town where i lived.

[Frankie811]

basachs, on May 31 2007, 05:00 PM, said:

I was at Mohegan last weekend with friends and gas on the reservation was 4.25 a gallon for regular. I realize this is an anomaly, but it was amazing. They get your money coming and going (for those that dont know, the gas station is on the way out of the reservation)

Well, if your a regular there, which I'm not, they'll give you coupons for free gas. Of course only their best customers who spend money at the casino get these coupons.

[runawayjim]

Frankie811, on May 31 2007, 06:04 PM, said:

Well, if your a regular there, which I'm not, they'll give you coupons for free gas. Of course only their best customers who spend money at the casino get these coupons.

if you're not a regular... how would you know this?

[Frankie811]

runawayjim, on May 31 2007, 06:08 PM, said:

if you're not a regular... how would you know this?

Well obviously I know someone who gets these free offers.

[eltron]

basachs, on May 31 2007, 05:00 PM, said:

I was at Mohegan last weekend with friends and gas on the reservation was 4.25 a gallon for regular. I realize this is an anomaly, but it was amazing. They get your money coming and going (for those that dont know, the gas station is on the way out of the reservation)

REALLY?

Huh - in upstate new york, driving west from Ithaca, there is a notorious indian reservation (not sure which one) that is a REQUIRED stop for gas, cause its at least $.50 cents cheaper than regular market gas (guess no federal tax on gas on reservations either?). The mashantucket pequot or whomever must be raking!

[runawayjim]

eltron, on Jun 1 2007, 09:16 AM, said:

REALLY?

Huh - in upstate new york, driving west from Ithaca, there is a notorious indian reservation (not sure which one) that is a REQUIRED stop for gas, cause its at least $.50 cents cheaper than regular market gas (guess no federal tax on gas on reservations either?). The mashantucket pequot or whomever must be raking!

this is the mohegan tribe (hence the name), the mashantucket pequots are foxwoods.  they only gouge you at this station because it's the only one right next to the casino.  you have to leave the major routes to the highway to get to any other gas stations (and risk getting lost in the middle of nowhere in southeastern CT).

there are plenty of other gas stations near the casino, but you need to know where you're going to get to them.  there are even some closer ones than the ones on route 12 i used to go to.

[Frankie811]

eltron, on Jun 1 2007, 09:16 AM, said:

REALLY?

Huh - in upstate new york, driving west from Ithaca, there is a notorious indian reservation (not sure which one)

Is it the Stepping Stone Casino?

[eltron]

Frankie811, on Jun 1 2007, 10:07 AM, said:

Is it the Stepping Stone Casino?

no - that is east of syracuse.

the one I am talking about is the senaca nation reservation near sallamanca, south of buffalo. Only place I've ever seen gas sold like that...

[xine]

eltron, on Jun 1 2007, 10:11 AM, said:

no - that is east of syracuse.

the one I am talking about is the senaca nation reservation near sallamanca, south of buffalo. Only place I've ever seen gas sold like that...

That is indeed the notorious Salamanca Reservation pit stop on Route 17  (now I-84 or something) between Allegheny County in NY and Erie PA. I know it well.
The other part that made it memorable is that they were the last holdout on making a 4 lane limited access road across their land; for decades the highway abruptly ended and you had to travel a narrow two lane road across some beautiful and terrifying mountainsides to the flatlands of the great lakes. You really need a break from that kind of  driving; cheap gas, mocassins, and the only McDonalds within 75 miles fit the bill.

Good times!

[Recchia]

I drive 38 miles a day four days a week for work and any further gas price increase would really screw up my strict budget.   I'd get rid of my car in a heartbeat but A) bus service to Taunton doesn't fit my 10 hour day and B) I frequently have to travel to meetings in Fall River and New Bedford in the evening.  So unless Thom Deller needs some help in the planning department or I find a job at Statewide Planning, I'm stuck.  And there's also the fact that I love my work at my curreny job.