and when one brings up all the positives of cycling, you inevitably get this:

"I drive on Mt. Paran every evening to go home. No, I'm not rich, I just find it easier to get to 75 South than it is to take 400. Cyclists there are farking nuts. "Gee, let's take up the entire farking roadway! This was made for cars? Forget it! Mine now!" I want to run those self-righteous biatches over."

Cyclists have rights on a road, just like cars do. Get over it. And before you try the "but they aren't paying taxes !!11!" plea, the huge majority of cyclists also own cars.

Damned if you do (suv driving selfish pig)
Damned if you don't (arrogant cyclist prick)

False

I have been driving much less since gas prices went up in the past six months. Higher gas prices have brought attention to the economics of travel and I have chosen to drive less frequently to save money.

The people that high gas prices do not affect are the consumer-bred Americans who have no sense of frugality - or understanding of our impact on prices and the chain of supply and demand by limiting our demand.

In essence, most Americans are post-Industrial idiots who are propelling inflation higher and creating larger gaps between the rich and the poor.

Karl Marx feels vindicated.

kab

My problem with cyclists is they don't wait their farking turn at the light. They all move up to the front which is bullshiat.

You get past them only to have them all go to the front of the line at a read light and start the cluster fark all over again.

This is especially fun in Seattle where it's all hills and they max out at 5 miles/hour.

stappawho

So the ONE advantage in a traffic situation that a bike has, is a bad thing?

Do you think motorcycles being able to lane split is a bad thing?

Just wondering :)

HAHAHA!!!11!

I ride a superglide almost everyday, rain or shine. If I can make it TO work dry I will ride.

45-50 MPG
Fun as hell.
I wear nice clothes for work, so I get em drycleaned right downtown and change at work.
I can use the HOV lane. Home in half the time.

Sucks to be you, cager ;-)

"I just find it easier to get to 75 South than it is to take 400"

Every highway here is easier to deal with then 400. Yech. I'm lucky having a Cobb/ATL commute. I love the towns off 400, but traffic will forever keep me out.

Lol, the price of gas is nowhere near the level it would need to be to cause me to drive less. Even if it was, I would just go out to eat less or go the movies less. It costs me like $10-$15 more to fill my tank than it did a few years ago. Hardly a monumental price increase.

robogun: You haven't been to Vegas lately have you?

Went there last year and saw a slot machine with an ATM slot/pad on it (didn't take pure credit cards obviously).

kab

I don't ride a bike to work or know anyone that does so I'm not sure of the reasoning behind allowing that, but yes, it's annoying as hell. I'm all for bikers riding on the roads, I don't mind sharing. I'll be patient and wait until I have a chance to safely pass.

But I think they need to wait their turn in line.

I drive less whenever possible. I also try to consolidate my trips or wait a day or two and run many errands at the same time.

Zoot not Dingo - so is the addition of ethanol going to mess up my car? My favorite fill up spot recently added 10% ethanol to its mix. if E85 at 85% is damaging is 10% an eighth as bad?


Gas companies started using 10% E85 as a fuel additive to help it burn cleaner (or something, dont recall specifically) cause the old additive they recently had to stop using was bad for the environment when it came back in rain form...they hype the E85 additive simply to sound more environmentally friendly, I doubt at that low of a percentage its bad for your engine components but I'm no mechanic...

well, here in Nebraska, we are using less fuel. and to combat the loss of revenue in gas tax, they raised the fuel tax.

but i'm sure after gas prices go back down and we start using more, they'll lower the fuel tax to what it was.

/right?
//that's how it works..right?
///guys?

Well I'm not driving less, in fact I'm about to start driving more as my company will be moving 8 miles farther away. Moving closer is not much of an option as I own my home and I can't be selling each time the company moves it's offices (3rd move in ten years).

My kids are getting older which means more other activities which means more driving. My wife is going back to school...more driving.

With public transportation around here the mess it is we can't realistically drive less. Instead we have chosen to drive smarter. Two and a half years ago I traded my car for a motorcycle. Three months ago my wife got one as well. If we don't have to take the kids we go on the bikes. I commute every day on mine. (I'm a R&D engineer, no one cares how I look.)

We're not saving money yet, the bikes were both new and together cost $12K. Even though we've cut our fuel usage in half it'll take years to pay off the bikes that way.

In two years we'll have to replace the minivan. Unfortunately a sedan or wagon just doesn't work for us, so we'll be buying another. I'm certainly hoping there is a hybrid minivan at a decent price by that time.

So we're changing our driving patterns, but it's not fueled by a desire to save money just to use less energy.

Naw, its got to go to about $5.00/gallon, hopefully we will get there by the end of the year.

/drives a small car
//has lots of stock in oil companies
///life has been sweet lately

>>Karl Marx feels vindicated.

Yes, it's so much worse to be a poor American whining about the price of gas and their cell phone bill than a poor communist citizen starving.

Mr. Toast

Communist theory does not dictate that anyone starves. Marx being vindicated, as I put it, is in reference to his accuracy in identifying pre-revolutionary societies - or those that are capitalist - as seeing their middle class vanish and monopolies reigning in business. This theoretically could happen when the prices of goods and services rise and wages do not sufficiently provide for a middle class to exist.

Therefore, Marx would feel vindicated to see signs of the gradual demise of our capitalist society.

My drive to work is 40 miles. Unfortunately, I tried to unload my car and get one better on gas, but I'm stuck too early in a lease, and would get eaten alive.

Fortunately, I still get > 30mpg. Here in Canada, gas is the equivalent of $3.81 USD/gallon. It's costing me an arm and a leg, but I don't have a choice at this point -- my work is a few cities over.

That being said, when this lease is up, I'm getting a Toyota Corolla. 45mpg.

Fortunately for me, though, I work at a credit card processing centre -- the worse gas gets, the more money we'll make, and the better my job security is.

EdNortonsTwin
The only thing that needs to be done to most diesels to run biodiesel is to change out the rubber fuel lines to Viton lines, even that is somewhat optional if you are only running B20 (20% bioD). Most new diesels have B100 compatable lines already. If you are talking about running SVO (straight veg oil) or WVO (waste veg oil), then the conversion is expensive and somewhat diffecult(~$800) and not really ever that good for the engine. If that's the route you want to go, I hope you like cleaning injector nozzles.

EdNortonsTwin

I heard about the bio-diesel being easy to switch over to. What needs to be changed on the engine?

p.s. nice thighs


If you had a normal newer diesel, you don't have to do much of anything. If you have been running diesel for a long time, and switch to bio you might need to get new fuel filters because the bio will clean out the scudge in your gas tank and engine.

I am taking forever on mine because my Rabbit was submerged somewhere, for some reason. I don't want to switch to an unknown variable while I am fixing all the other stupid little things. Plus I think I have a leaky piston ring. That's a pull-the-engine fix, and having never done it, I need am waiting until a family member can walk me through it. If your normal, and don't buy a $700 dollar car that was sunk in a pond (engine still worked after!) you don't have to worry about anything other than maybe the fuel filters or fuel lines if the lines are older than the 80s.

/Thanks!

What I love is how excited people get over a ~10 cent change in price. Whoopdie freakin' do, now I save a buck fifty every other week!!!

They run a commercial for that discount at my local grocery store where I unfortunatly work nights (it's a wonder I'm even alive anymore) and it pisses me off. Almost as bad as having to stock the 20 different types of ibufrofen and 80 types of tampons.

/git offa ma lawn!!!

I worked at a gas station when gas hit $1.50 & $1.75 for the first time...from the amount people complained then, I would have thought $3.00 gas would have caused rioting in the street.

People get used to anything. I moved, now I use less than a tank of gas every two weeks, so it's not going to really bother me until gas hits $10 / gallon.

/Would still ride the bus 2-3 days a week if I could

dj4aces: Bus -> Train -> Bus? 3 hours, easy.

That's assuming, of course, that they're running on schedule :). I don't know if you read it, but Creative Loafing made all of their staff use public transport recently (within the past year?), to predictable results.

when you slowly boil the frog, he doesnt notice until it's too late.

$3 a gallon is nothing in a country where people pay $4 for a latte or $6 for a pint of beer in a bar.

I'm so sick of people biatching and whining about this. $3 for something that transports you 20-40 miles is not a lot of money.

If gas continues to climb and stays high for a decade, then we will see the trend swing towards lower consumption.

Public transportation is best at taking tax payers for a ride, not getting people where they want to be.

Driving less here. I wish I lived in a place where public transportation was a viable option, but what can you do.

>>Communist theory does not dictate that anyone starves.

Of course it doesn't dictate starvation. That's merely a side effect.

I thought we covered this yesterday

I sincerely hope it gets up to $10 a gallon.

my wife and i bought bikes the other day. and now my ass is sore. literally.

stappawho
What they need to do is raise taxes on gas till prices hit $4.00 to $4.50/gallon.

Use the extra taxes for public transportation and to supplement truckers/transporters etc... so the economy overall doesn't get fubared by skyrocketing shipping costs.

This way people will drive less and use more public transportation, alternative sources of fuel will become more cost effective and therefore more of a priority and the high price of fuel won't fark the economy.

It really is that easy folks.

That's ridiculous.

Any money brought in by the tax would be spent subsidizing shipping and public transportation's increased fuel costs from the added workload. Farm subsidies would also need to be provided to stop the higher fuel costs from preventing farmers from utilizing the heavy machinery they employ.

Add to that the fact that public transportation is simply not viable (or available) in rural America, even in most cities below ~50k people.

$4 a gallon and up, and even where we're at now, is going to create problems in the future. The growth of gas consumption may be up 1.2%, but consumer confidence has been faltering and personal savings rates are crumbling. People don't have the money to sustain the growth of an economy based on consumer spending as gas prices continue to rise; by raising the cost of fuel, you're impacting everywhere else where people would spend that money.

The effects aren't immediate and aren't going to be, and any fix implemented as if that were the case would be disasterous.

2006-07-26 01:44:41 PM HAL_lives


What is truly fun to watch is GM trying to spin its way out of the grave......The one word we hear very little of is diesel.


Funny you mention GM because I'm in the market for a car. $13 FARKING THOUSAND DOLLAR REBATES on some of the big GM hogs and the local dealership is about to crack the earth's crust because of all the unsold units. I am kidding very little here.

Across the street, HONDA has SEVEN new cars available for sale. I looked at a new Civic and was so impressed with my five minute look that I will do the unthinkable and buy one. I drove there in my 06 Vette and was disgusted/shocked/upset that the Honda is just sooooo much better in and out.

Don't remember GM's last foray into diesel engineering? Back around 1980 they touted their 350 diesel motor to be the solution to the oil crisis. Trouble is that they built it on a gas motor platform and they lasted for all of 6 months or 10,000 miles. Not a single person lost their job over that one, but GM never again fielded a car with a diesel motor. Bob Lutz is still defending that decision saying things like "well they have high emissions". Sure but VW also gets 80 MPG in Euro trim, and think of all the experience GM engineers could have gained over 25 years.

I will not mourn GM; I will just buy the "Corvette" rights.

For those of you decrying E85 gas...

Where I live (MN, USA) E85 gas is typically about 30% cheaper than regular 87 octane gas, so any reduction in gas mileage is made up by that fact (but that may just be because of govt. subsidies, etc.).

My Dodge Caravan is a FFV and gets around 20% less mpg on E85 than on 'regular'.

There is no risk of damaging an FFV's engine/fuel system and if anything the engine may last longer because E85 burns cooler and cleaner.

I have read that non-FFVs can safely handle up to 20% ethanol in their fuel.

OK, so I can see that farkers are still able to make ends meet between gas and food and rent on their paycheck. However, if the trend is for more expensive gas, and if paychecks do not increase to meet the rising cost of gas prices, what will happen when the price of gas becomes to much? Is there a too much? People are willing to pay 30 dollars a week commuting (3.00 per gallon x 2 gallons per day commuting (just an assumption), x 5 days a week). Would people still pay if it was 50 dollars a week? Is there a point where the paycheck cannot support the lifestyle, and if so, what loses out?


Personally, if gas gets too expensive, I bet we'll see a trend away from suburbs. I just don't see employers increasing pay to cover the costs of commuting.

Uncle Bester
many non-FFVs can handle much more than that. Because of gasohol (E10),which has been around a long time, most fuel systems are designed to be at least nominally alcohol compatable. If your car has fuel injection with a Lambda (oxygen) sensor, your fuel injection computer will automatically enrichen your mixture...to a point. You simply add E85 until the check engine light comes on, indicating that your fuel injection computer can no longer keep the proper mixture, then add a couple gallons of gas. Lots of folks are able to run up to ~40% ethanol in non-FFVs.

Do you "free marketers" even have a clue what the invisible hand is?

The rich ... divide with the poor the produce of all their improvements. They are led by an invisible hand to make nearly the same distribution of the necessaries of life which would have been made, had the earth been divided into equal proportions among all its inhabitants.
-Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, Part IV Chapter 1

WTF part of that seems like it's happening right now? The rich are divvying their wealth up with the poor, uh huh, sure... the numbers and indices are all lying to us.

Don't mortgage yourself. Don't let your things own you. Buy what you can afford to pay cash/write a check for. You borrow money for the things you flat-out can't afford to pay for outright: your home and your education. That's it. These things also happen to be things that are worth paying on because you get a return of some kind. A financed car is never worth what you paid for it.

Buy older, good cars and live without car payments. Your vanity will soon shut up, if you're any kind of human being. Find a good mechanic. Take the time to care for your vehicle, and it will care for you. A $200 mechanic bill once or twice a year is a lot better than $300-$400 a month plus the extra insurance you have to carry.

/94 Acura Legend
//213K and counting
///damn fine looking car, too

you would never run out of gas in one of these.

http://image63.webshots.com/63/0/23/32/2889023320089819404GzGzqj_ph.jpg

This is why I just bought me a brand new scooter to ride to work everyday. I get 65 miles a gallon on that thing, and the insurance is less than $250 a year. Drive the same, but do it for way cheaper

I'll use less gas when my workplace and super market move closer to me....until then there is nothing I can do.

2005 Hyundai Elantra. 35MPG. 1mi from work.

Bite it. Bite it hard. Especially if you're crying over the price and drive an SUV. No love.