In the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, fuel prices, specifically gasoline prices, are rising and maybe that’s good. People would then be more inclined to buy cars that get more miles to a gallon and use public transportation more often, thereby conserving gasoline and cutting emissions.
In Teeside, UK, gasoline prices were at $5.64 a gallon in May 2004, compared to $1.94 a gallon in the US at the same time. . The $3.70 difference is mostly taxes but has influenced people in the UK to drive more economical cars and use public transportation more often. For example, the rail network in the UK has more track per square mile than the US; 14 square km for every km of track in the UK as opposed to 42 square km for every km of track in the US.
Here in the US public transportation is pretty good, at least in central NJ. I take a chemistry course at a community college half an hour away from my home, and this past week I took the bus home from the college. I had to go on three separate buses, and walk 11 minutes to my house from the bus stop, but it only cost me $2.75 to go about 15 miles. The trip took me about an hour and a half, but I read a book and listened to some music to pass the time. If you had a car that got about 20 mpg and the price of gasoline is $5.00 a gallon, then you could save money by riding the bus. Taking public transportation also frees you up to do other things than driving. You could read a book like I did, do some chemistry homework, or listen to music on your iPod.
Besides using public transportation, other ways to spend less money on transportation, would be to buy a car that gets more miles to the gallon. Hybrid electric vehicles get many more miles per gallon than normal cars do. The Honda Insight gets 63 mpg. That would cut your spending on gasoline in half, even if you drove a car that got 30 mpg, which is high for normal gasoline powered cars. Hybrid cars work by having an electric motor that can power the car when its batteries have a charge, and when the batteries run out of charge, a smallish gasoline engine kicks in. Also when you are braking, the electric motor generates electricity.
As gasoline prices rise, though it may not be bad, there may be some consequences. The cost of public transportation might go up so that the public transportation agencies can pay for the operation of the buses and trains. If the gasoline price was raised with a tax though, then part of that tax could go toward paying for additional public transportation. It may also become more economically feasible to produce gasoline in other ways (using coal, for example) that are even more harmful to the environment than the current ways. The government could regulate that though so that it isn’t feasible anymore. High gas prices may be the only way to wake people up to the fact that they don’t have a right to cheap gasoline and could fairly easily cut there gasoline use in simple ways.
— Mom 1189 days ago #