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Cheapest gas.
Rank Country Price/gal
1. Venezuela 12 cents
2. Iran 40 cents
3. Saudi Arabia 45 cents
4. Libya 50 cents
5. Swaziland 54 cents
6. Qatar 73 cents
7. Bahrain 81 cents
8. Egypt 89 cents
9. Kuwait 90 cents
10. Seychelles 98 cents
44. United States $3.45
Just wait until we see the down slope of peak oil, we are on the plateau right now, maybe a little after peak or a little before.
tl- combine our weak dollar with the fact that we have very few things many of those countries have (universal health care, paid college education, paid child care, sabbaticals) and you can start to see why it hurts us more than those other countries.
Right on, Jennifer. Combine that with the fact that the majority of cars in Europe and manual transmission diesels under 2.0L and the distances they travel are much lower, perhaps 1/4-1/5 of the distances here. That starts to paint a picture who's affected more by the prices.
"and the distances they travel are much lower, perhaps 1/4-1/5 of the distances here"
This is always stated but never proved. I drive about 3 miles to work, Your telling me the rest of the world lives within 3 miles of something? Why do they need cars then? This is such a crap argument, please prove that the rest of the world needs to drive less then us...Nobody has givin me a source yet..
You clearly have never been to Europe. That may be the stupidest thing I've read all day.
agree with sunshine-day.
I grew up in Germany, never owned a car until I came to America at age 31. I had a car here from day 1.
I lived downtown. University was 0.5 miles north. Later the job was 0.1 miles away. The office moved, my commute changed to 0.4 miles. I moved. Commute was back to 0.1 miles.
Most guys in our office (all software engineers) walked to work, not for me. I rode a bike all my life. I'm stating the engineer part because certainly we could afford to drive, and most people owned a car, but would not use it much.
Shopping, gym, sports club, 5 movie theaters, 1 ballet/ theater.. all within less than a mile. Restaurant downstairs.
Parks, railway station.. within 1 mile from.
I think I lived for 12 years in a circle with a 2 mile radius.
One guy had an unbelievable long commute to our office (he lived with his parents at age 40). He drove something like 20 miles!!! (ONE WAY!!!) He was also the one who told me in 1989 that Real Estate is a safe way to put my money. Thanks, Holger!
-Peter
And if tldms wants hard numbers, there are statistics. Anecdotal evidence. In the US 12,000 miles per year is considered normal. I personally log more like 28,000 miles/yr.
Public transport is the issue. Right now I am stuck w/ a broken down car 45 miles from home. (Posting from a salad bar). In Europe, I'd just get on a train, take the train to work tomorrow, pick up the car after work and drive home.
My way home is "only" 45 miles but making the 3 bus connections would take 3+ hours. (It's 6pm!)
So I had to call a friend. The friend drives 50 miles from another direction, takes me home, stays there overnight, will drive the 95 miles home tomorrow. And this is in the San Francisco Bay Area / California, which is supposed high density. I don't even want to know about Nebraska.
Peter
I was hoping you would post on this topic, Peter.
tld- everything you need in England, for the most part, is within two miles. Here, you have to leave town, and maybe even a state to go to work, go to school, go shopping... you get the point. I HIGHLY doubt anyone in Europe travels 2 hours a day for work, yet that is commonplace here. Just an observation.
this is the most non-smart argument i have ever seen. # of people who are travelling from state to state is very few unless you count the ones who work in the borders. jen, can you post something useful around here?
traveling 2 hours to get to work may be commonplace here, but it is stupid. Making our entire economy vulnerable to and dependent on shitloads of imported oil has been the ultimate stupid public planning in USA history.
I wanted to do the math on this one, so here we go.
Average UK gas price (1.22£ per liter)
US (3.45$ per Gallon)
1 gallon = 3.8 liters
3.8 * 1.22£ = 4.636£ per gallon
UK Median weekly income = 457£
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=285
US Median weekly Income = 926$
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Household_income_in_the_United_States
1 Fillup a week. 15gallon average.
US 51.75$
UK 69.54£
Percentage of weekly income:
US 5.5%
UK 15.2%
So yeah, UK pays a LOT more. However if we take average miles driven in a week.
Various sites report average yearly milage. In the US its around 15,000. So thats 288/week. Roughly one fillup for most vehicles.
UK figures are around 9,000 per year, or 173 per week. So thats .6 fillups a week. Take the 69.54£ fillup multiply it by .6 and we get the average UK person spending 41.72£ a week on gas.
Thats 9.1% of their weekly paycheck. Still a conciderable ammount more than the average US person which clocked in at 5.5%
But you also have to reemember, the average UK vehicle has a much much better gasmilage than the average US vehicle.
Things get really interesting when you figure your average california gas price, SUV milage and median income and milage driven. Then see how much of their paycheck goes to gas and how much is left over for that awesome ARM comming due for a reset lol.
I would agree with the original post that gas is cheap to buy, but we pay with other means.
Commute is stress, and it kills. Usually slowly. There are not a lot of traffic fatalities in gridlock.
Sitting in a car as opposed to walking/ biking.. think of weight issues, fitness, lost time, blahblah.
>> But you also have to reemember, the average UK vehicle has a much much better gasmilage than the average US vehicle.<<
True, but this is going to be history very soon. Look for sales figures of SUVs.
The asking price for a 15 year old gas saver economy car just doubled (I monitor cars on Craig's List).
-Peter
Peter, where in Germany are you from? I spent some time in Austria (Vienna) and loved the short distances -- buses and U-Bahn stations everywhere, and you could always ride a bicycle. Now I live in Japan, and you don't need a car here either. I don't ever want to own a car.
life is short. im buying a corvette, anyway.
Silent observer, I live in New England, so I actually observe what goes on. I didn't say 'state to state' I SAID, 'Here, you have to leave town, and maybe even a state'. Clear your eyes from your political agenda. Thank you.
And how's this for something useful- none of those countries listed buy gas in US Dollars. So the original post is 100% false, ridiculous and misleading. Is that useful enough for you?
Fill- I'm with you.
Tax gasoline at $9 per gallon for transit, and the demand of gasoline will drop to the point we will not be dependent on foreign oil, and the (untaxed) price of gasoline will drop to a very reasonable number. The problem would be "solved" as people would have a transit option, and alternative fuels would become competitive and have distribution.
(U.S. automobiles would need the Brazilian "multi-fuel" conversion).
But the oil industry stocks would substantually plummet.
The ethanol thing is just a government subsidy of corn through the farm bill and ends up using more oil for the fertilizer. Just another way the mega-corporations rip off the public through special interest legislation.
We don't need nor want corn to be used for energy. We don't even want corn to be the major ingredient in all the food products we buy. Tax gasoline, stop subsidizing corn, and let the market figure out better economic alternatives.
Pasadena- don't you find our "shortage" of corn to be EXTREMELY amusing when you can't eat, drink or chew something in this country without it containing a corn by-product of some kind? Yeah, we have a shortage... sure...
I think corn could be viable though, and it definitely beats what we have now.
paying high gas prices is a good thing for us here in SoCal. it's actually creating less traffic. i've saved over 10 minutes in my normally 35 minute commute each way.
wide stance... awesome name, first and foremost... but aside from that- I used to drive 40 miles a day just for work, not counting going out on the road... The same thing would happen every night- traffic backed up for miles, everyone coming out of NYC between 4:30 and 6:30 or so, and then they'd get up to my neck of the woods and wreak havoc... If I couldn't make it OUT of the office by 5, I wouldn't even bother trying to leave until at least 6:15. I'd rather not sit in traffic... If people just CARPOOLED, there would be significantly less traffic. I can't understand how someone could drive 120+ miles a day, alone, in wicked amounts of traffic and not think to themselves, 'if I rode with Bob and Joan, there'd be two less cars on the road.' And if we all did that, there'd be a LOT less cars on the road. Less cars, less traffic, less headaches, better quality of life. Looking at LA and their issues with congestion is saddening to me. When is everyone going to wake up??? This is not a joke. Unless of course they prefer wasting 10 hours a week sitting in a car.
@Michinaga
Peter, where in Germany are you from?
I lived from 1984-1996 in Braunschweig, near the border to East Germany
@fillm0re:
life is short. im buying a corvette, anyway.
I added a brand-new Viper this past weekend to my garage. First gentle 500 miles will be completed tonight, if you know what I mean :-)
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Think you're paying too much for gas? Think again.
tldtms
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Well be fine if these countries manage to survive.
Rank Country Price/gal
1. Eritrea $9.58
2. Norway $8.73
3. United Kingdom $8.38
4. Netherlands $8.37
5. Monaco $8.31
6. Iceland $8.28
7. Belgium $8.22
8. France $8.07
9. Germany $7.86
10. Portugal $7.84
108. United States $3.45
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