Why aren't people complaining about gas prices?

Don't you do that all the time anyways?

...no. Well yes. SHUT UP. I WILL MURDER LESBIANS.

Woah, that's going too far!

But seriously, Public Transit just isn't viable in some areas, like Kansas.

People need cars, but the thing is we can easily promote other ways of powering them.

We could also make roads much safer and less polluting places by switching as much freight back to rail.

All the freight. All of it. B|

I always get confused as to why people think that increasing public transportation means getting rid of all cars everywhere.

The automobile is a very demanding beast, and refuses to coexist with other forms of transportation.

I'm looking into getting a scooter or a car or something because the public transportation between cities here is complete shit. 9-5 jobs just don't exist any more, and part-time employers don't want to work with the bus schedule, because it'd be easier to fire me and hire someone that lives closer.

It's irritating though, because scooters, even used, cost more than a used car, and I don't have that sort of money.

Used scooters? You mean like a moped? Because I know a guy who bought real motor scooters for two hundred, fixed them up a bit, and sold them for four.

Yeah, they're all around a thousand out here, at the lowest. It sucks.

Edit: I should claify. I need a gas-powered one, because none of the electric ones have enough juice to get me into town and back. It's about thirty five miles round-trip, and that's in mountainous terrain.

edited 20th Mar '11 9:38:50 PM by DrunkGirlfriend

A thousand? For the ones that don't have a seat? That's kinda ridiculous.

Check Ebay. I don't work with the guy anymore but he couldn't have been the only one doing that.

You could always jurry rig one with a weed wacker engine or something.

A quick google search reveals this. Go forth on your scooter made of chainsaw parts.

edited 21st Mar '11 6:27:51 AM by Deboss

@Joe: No, they all have seats. They're also the super-low end ones that cost 2000 new, but for some reason, they're still 1000 or more used.

It's probably because they're super good on gas, and go a decent speed, both of which I need, considering that it's half an hour to 45 minutes going into town with a car, an hour on the bus, and almost two hours by bike, since I can't really get much faster than 25 (going downhill) with the bike I have in this terrain. It's too heavy.

I've been noticing the prices going up myself; I remember 1999, when gas was under a dollar a gallon. I also have a Prius, so the prices don't hit me as hard (a fillup for me is around 7 gallons), but people with bigger cars are going to hate this. Both of my parents' cars are hand-me-down SUVs, and keeping gas in those is a bitch.

There's also the van, but it also has a fuel system issue that makes its fuel economy worse than usual.

Protip: I live in Melbourne, which is a planned city. It was designed around a public transport infrastucture.

Guess what - public transport still sucks balls.

It never goes where you want, when you want.

As for me, I don't gripe about fuel costs much because I have a small car which I drive in a fuel efficient manner. The biggest cause of fuel efficiency isn't under the hood, it's behind the wheel.

4.05 a gallon this morning on my way to work. Total cost was about 50 dollars. Should last me about two weeks.

I'm driving a Buick Park Avenue, which qualifies for "land yacht" status, I think.

edited 23rd Mar '11 5:43:56 PM by pvtnum11

• laughs at amnericans complaining about gas prices*

-Laughs at Brits for complaining about University cost hikes.-

I dunno about where you guys live. but in my midwest town I constantly hear people whine about gas prices. And we havent even hit the 4 dollar mark yet.

3.50 is considered "too high" by most of them here. Not that that stops any of them from buying huge trucks that require 150 dollar fuel ups.

edited 24th Mar '11 11:29:28 AM by Midgetsnowman

There also is that, yeah. The US has basically bulot itself into a very inconvenient hole. Our general city and even small town design is based on the assumption everyone has a car. (barring a few major areas like new York City).

Gas prices rising hits a lot more people with annoyance because like, say in my town, admittedly, it'd be not as bad if so many people werent so frigging insistent on using ginormous trucks that guzzle gas...but theres still the issue that with no decent mass transit systems, a lot of people live in small outlying towns and commute to the larger cities for work. without either tons more mass transit or a fleet of personal automobiles, the entire way americans work and travel will be pretty much unsustainable. And new public transporation means taxes. We're not very good overall at approving new taxes.

Actually a lot of the East Coast is more friendly to foot traffic. It's the West and Midwest that's the problem.

-Laughs at Brits for complaining about University cost hikes.-

• laughs at assumption of britishness*

I never did understand the SUV craze. Gee, let's pay ten thousand dollars more for a truck, and all I get for that ten grand is a back seat and a roof over it!

Although I'd like to drive a Ford Excursion just once. I bet parking that thing must be just oodles of fun.

Meh, we're all resigned to our fate down here in California. We fought for a while a while back, but nothing happened, and we soon realized that nothing was going to happen, regardless of what we did, short of everyone using public transportation, which would only cause more problems.

thats sort of the problem with gas. Theres almost nothing you can do about it given the market for it isnt competitive at all.

My God, that Ford thing is hideous. It's like a house-brick. Who designed that and who was his optician?