Get out the bikes! Gas $4.09/gal in Seattle.

[Trek420]

I'd made it a training goal this year to bike to work twice a week, this is just gravy on the cake I already know that riding to work has many benefits this just solidifies it.

This is an international board and I'm not saying that Americans are isolated or ... I'm jut not sayin' but for many here in the U.S unless you travel or know people out of the country many here are not aware that our prices have been really unusually low.

[Tuckervill]

It all makes me so sad, tho. And our gas is cheap compared to many parts of the country--$3.35 this morning. We live on the edge of Oklahoma, where gas is cheaper (probably because of fewer taxes). It seems the retailers in my little town feel the need to compete with those in NE Oklahoma, so they keep prices at Tulsa rates. Yet, 25 miles to the east, it's sometimes (often) 25 cents higher per gallon. Unfortunately, I have to go into "town" once or twice a week. But I'm working on not doing it so often.

What makes me sad...all the people who are struggling to make ends meet when they HAVE to drive to "town" to go to work. Then all the people who are making payments on 20mpg-or-less vehicles, which they usually drive over the speed limit, and finding they have to put the gas on their credit card to make it to work this week. And pretty soon it accumulates and we have people in full blown financial distress. If they had just started taking their foot off the gas pedal more often, they could have started planning ahead for this. That's just one tiny segment, the one I used to be in years ago, so I identify with them more than the people who are plucking chickens across the creek from me. (Those people are already walking/biking/ride-sharing to work, and living nearby.)

And our president is surprised when a reporter asks about $4 a gallon gas. Not to make this political, but I'm cynical enough to think that the dead silence from our leaders is election-year related...and optimistic enough to think that things will get better immediately after the election, no matter who wins.

Karen

[Brandi]

$88.01 to fill up our truck yesterday! I told my dh not to go nuts when he saw how much it was going to cost. We have one car between us. And I have my scooter. It cost me like $2.25 maybe to fill the tank and that last's me about 100 miles. I ride it on most of my domestic errands. But when we have to go into town in the truck (which is about 20 minutes down the road), we make sure we do a few things not just 1 thing.
I don't know maybe having just one car doesn't hurt us as much at the pump? But it is a truck, we have to have it for work too there is no getting around that. I just try and ride my scooter as much as I can.

[SouthernBelle]

I think part of the problem we have in North America is that we are so spread out in some areas. I'm looking for a bike suitable for commuting, but my commute is less than 2 miles. I'm less than a mile from a grocery. I live in town. But I know people who are many miles from either. Often those in more densely populated areas don't get that.

Also I've noted that the days of the country grocery store seem to be past.

[Jolt]

I think part of the problem we have in North America is that we are so spread out in some areas. I'm looking for a bike suitable for commuting, but my commute is less than 2 miles. I'm less than a mile from a grocery. I live in town. But I know people who are many miles from either. Often those in more densely populated areas don't get that.

I think you've hit the nail on the head. In a lot of areas, things just aren't set up in a way to be conducive to walking or biking to get to work or get errands done. My parents and two sisters, for example, live in western NJ and it's a fifteen-minute drive (and not because of stop and go) just to get to the grocery store, Walmart etc., and a lot of those trips are along a busy, high-speed route. Not the best setup for utility cycling, and plus it's VERY hilly (puts the Worcester area to shame in that department!!) to boot.