View Full Version : Anyone changing their driving habits yet?
Just filled my wife's car up at Costco - $ 3.539 for regular. I sell motorcycles and we are already seeing customers coming in to look for more affordable transportation - primarily for commuting and instead of their big pickups.
I am going to use it as an excuse to start riding my bicycle more often to work - despite the Oregon rain.
We are going to do more car pooling - especially for our dd's activites at church and
and school.
I wish I could change my driving habits! I live way out in the country and have a 50-mile commute one way to work. Nobody nearby to carpool with. Oh, but hey - I'll be laid off in two months and won't be driving much of anywhere... How's that for a big change? :) I do hope to find a new job a bit closer to home. My biggest change was a few years back when I bought a Honda Fit to replace my Ford Ranger pickup. Talk about a huge savings in gas. I love that car.
I live far out in the country and always try to combine all my trips. But now I'm combining them even more. Wish I could drive my golfcart to town, but it would run out of juice before I got home.
I would love to have a more fuel efficient car, but I really insist on safety first (for myself, DH and my 2 older children). My DH drives about 25 miles one way to work and the weather in winter can be awful, so he drives an SUV. Plus, We need to use my van for all sorts of hauling. I do feel uncomfortable about our MPG though. I'm sure glad my kids aren't in high school anymore. It was 21 miles away, one way! And they were in all sorts of activities.
I just filled up this morning, it was $4.59/gallon for supreme. We're not changing our driving habits yet, we already batch trips up as much as we can, and arrange carpools for activities, but I'm sure looking forward to being able to get a Chevy Volt or something soon, at ~7 cents/kwh.
I am much less apt to just jump in the car and go. Sadly, I am not seeing changes around me like I did during the last crunch. People still racing to the red light, etc. Sometime between now and then, folks went out and bought lots of new, hugemobiles.
Spider In The Bath
3-8-11, 3:40pm
It is now getting very expensive this side of the water. It is about £1.30 a litre and set to rise. This is about $2.10 for 1/3 of a US gallon (so about $6.30 for a US gallon). We live in the middle of nowhere with no public transport and so have to use the cars to get to work. We already combine car journeys so shop for food in my dinnerhour at work etc so not much more we can do really. Luckily I swapped my car at the end of last year and so my current one is a lot more fuel efficient.
earthshepherd
3-8-11, 3:46pm
I am combining trips much more, and only leaving my area if I really need to. I don't mind the extra incentive to drive less, and I'm so thankful that I don't have a lengthy daily commute.
It's about $4/gal in my part of SoCal. I've always combined trips, but am doing it more now. I think before going anywhere these days.
I have a small SUV that gets about 25/gallon but a replacement car is not in the plans.
Since the last crunch, I figure in my head how much the trip will cost and decide if I'll save that much by going far afield just to buy something. Today is the last day of a modest cat food sale - it would cost about $2 in gas for the round trip. I'd have to buy 40 cans to break even. Think the cats will have to wait.
They will not starve. http://www.simplelivingforum.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=140&d=1294376136
ApatheticNoMore
3-8-11, 3:53pm
I am much less apt to just jump in the car and go. Sadly, I am not seeing changes around me like I did during the last crunch. People still racing to the red light, etc. Sometime between now and then, folks went out and bought lots of new, hugemobiles.
Yea well it's around $4 a gallon now here. It was around $5 a gallon last time. So we need another $1 a gallon at least before we get there, to where gas prices are a regular subject of conversation, to where out of shape people can be found bicycling dangerously and clueless on the roads, to where cars that probably haven't seen the outside of a garage in 30 years are trotted out (thickly rusted tiny hunks of metal). It's hilarious, because there is no happy medium, either the big cars are everywhere (low gas prices) or rustbags from 30 years ago are suddenly all over the roads (high gas prices), etc..
One of things I like about high gas prices is that it slows down the development headed this way. Developers got in the habit of building subdivisions way out in the country, hoping all the businesses would fill in from there to the city. The high gas prices have people thinking twice about living out so far. I have actually enjoyed the slow-down in the economy, despite our own financial problems. (By "enjoy", I mean I've had less anxiety about the development). It concerns me that even when we get alternative energy sources, nothing will stop this forward destruction of the rural countryside.
I do find it rather silly when the news interviews people on TV about their feelings about the high gas prices, and they are soooooooo indignant........Like getting cheap gas is an inalienable right.
Don't have to do too much yet--as I have a Prius and I get 50 miles to the gallon.
We've been combining trips, taking public transportation, and doing without for some time now. I hate giving my money to Big Oil :)
Also experimenting with this, since we live in hilly country (it's fun too) http://www.hypermiling.com/
We're also shopping for a newer car that gets much better mileage. Our choices are somewhat limited, living in snowy country with a rough driveway (need good ground clearance). But we're looking.
Trying to have 2 non driving days a week to make the gas last. Am not sure how I'll feel about this when it's 100 degrees outside this summer, though!
http://iliketomakethings.blogspot.com
Gas prices have taken their toll on me! I now limit driving to ten mile radius from my home. Anything further than that and it is cheaper (though more time consuming) to ride public transportation. I see more and more people on the buses and trains here than I have ever seen in the past.
I'm considering selling my completely awesome hot little RED Honda Insight - 47 MPG in the city. Anyone in the Pacific Northwest want to buy it? It's a 2001, just under 100K miles.
I do find it rather silly when the news interviews people on TV about their feelings about the high gas prices, and they are soooooooo indignant........Like getting cheap gas is an inalienable right.
That's like when they interview someone whose house has just burned down and their kids didn't make it out "How do you feel about what's happened?" Do they really expect anything other than "This is just terrible!" I suppose once in a while they get someone like Antoine Dodson:
full story: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzNhaLUT520&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL
edited to just his responses: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXvZeJSUDPM
But this isn't the normal response when being interviewed by the news.
DH has a 26 mile commute. He drives a Prius but now that the weather is getting better he wants to get back on his motorcycle. Me, if it isn't pouring down rain I am walking to work.
I can't. I normally drive very little. It's just a 5-6 mile drive to work & I have an efficient car. However, lately I've had a lot of extra driving to do because of a family situation. When that is over, I'll go back to my frugal gasoline usage. Right now, it has been costing me about $100 extra a week for gas (at 40 miles per gallon...)
I have to drive for work, and I have been driving a hybrid for the past 10 years...so I can't say that my driving has changed much other than I will continue to buy fuel efficient cars as long as i have this job....and when i get ready to retire, I will look at being car-free....
There's really nothing to change. I only have a 15 mile round trip commute to work. I live very close to shopping and church (3 miles or less one way). I am driving about 60-70 miles round trip once every week or two for a class I'm taking but that's it. I'm going to have some events coming up in the next month or so that will require up to three hours round trip once a week, but I might be able to car pool for those.
Haven't changed much, except maybe staying home even more lately. We've been very conservative with our driving habits for some time now - always combining necessary trips and figuring out the shortest route before we leave the house. We're thinking of buying a Chevy Eco Cruze in the future. They get great gas mileage. The Chevy Volt is way too high priced for our budget.
I drive about 50 miles a day when the weather is nice. There is not much difference if I drive my truck that gets 18 mpg if I baby it, but uses 87 octane, or my Porsche's that gets 24 mpg if I baby it, but uses 93 octane. If gas were to get to $5 or $6 I'd probably switch cars with my wife to go to the club. She has a Mercury Milan Hybrid and gets about 40 mpg.
We have several trips planned where we will be pulling our vintage travel trailer. We get about 10 mpg when we have that hooked up. That won't change our plans, but will drive up the cost. It hasn't made it any easier to get into a campground in the Keys for winter though. But the high prices may not have hit everyone yet. And who know's what they will be later in the year.
I sold my car Saturday. Not buying a new one. The bus fare can't rise without a huge hearing process and civic involvement, so I'm not worried about that. I take the bus to the grocery store - works well. I have set up all of my doctors & the pharmacy on the bus line. Luckily the bus comes close to where I work. :)
No change of habits for us. We have a truck and it costs about $75 for a fill up nowadays. We always combine trips and don't go all that much. We usually use two tanks a month.
Wildflower, let us know what you think of the Cruze, if you buy it. I've never owned an American car, but for gas mileage would consider it.
http://iliketomakethings.blogspot.com
early morning
3-9-11, 9:11pm
Not much I can change. I run all errands on the way to/from work, DH stays home most of the time, I drop DD off at my Dsis's several days a week instead of having two cars out. We drive carefully to save what we can. My car gets pretty good mileage, the truck, not so much. The way life is right now, I drive a lot. Can't be helped. No public transportation, can't find a car-pool, though I am signed up on the local ride-share board, just in case!
I have a compact car (Hyundai Accent sedan) that gets close to 35 - 40 mpg so haven't been hit too hard by the close-to-$4/gal price of gas herre in SoCal yet. But I am riding my bike more (do that anyways) and plan to do far trips (vacations) as one long one of several weeks at a time rather than several short ones. Save gas on all the back and forth. And, when on a long trip vacation thing, I plan to park the car and sightsee with the dogs in a trailer on my bike. Also, I have been planning on getting a new vehicle soon and was thinking about a larger truck or SUV with a V-6 and a small pop up tent trailer. Decided against that because of fuel costs . Than thought of getting a small SUV or mini van to use for camping but now am re-thinking that too because they still get crappy gas mileage. So will probably stick to getting another compact sedan (pups and I will be tent camping) like the new Hyundai Elantra which is bigger than the Accent but supposidly get 40 mpg.
I do find it rather silly when the news interviews people on TV about their feelings about the high gas prices, and they are soooooooo indignant........Like getting cheap gas is an inalienable right.
What cracks me up is that these same people are often holding a $5/cup of Starbuck's fancy-coffee-latte-capachino-mocha-etc.... At only $4/gal, gas is much cheaper than a cup o' joe now a days. Lets see... a gal of Starbucks finest would cost.... well, you guys can do the math since I can't count that high :-)!
Gardenarian
3-10-11, 5:51pm
My challenge for last year was to start driving more slowly. It took forever to change my habits, but now I rarely exceed the speed limit, and mostly stay a few miles under. I've been using a lot of the "hypermiling" tips (basically letting the car coast as much as possible.) I haven't changed because of the recent increase in gas prices, but I notice that many more drivers are slowing down and approaching stop signs and yellow lights much more slowly.
we changed 6 weeks ago, which just happened to pre-date the rise in gas prices. we moved downtown. we sold one car. we walk and bike to most places now. so instead of filling 2 gas tanks every week, we now fill one gas about once every 4-6 weeks. we got lucky on this one ....
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