Anyone changing their driving habits yet?

[Greg44]

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.

[SRP]

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.

[CathyA]

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.

[bae]

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.

[pinkytoe]

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]

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]

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.

[Gina]

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.

[ApatheticNoMore]

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..

[CathyA]

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.