How high can gas go before people wake up?

[andrmtro]

Hey everyone,

Here in Minnesota the gas prices are right around $3.30. It's been rising almost daily, just this past Friday it went up 10 cents overnight. The funny thing is that the crude oil barrel price (which I've noticed usually effects if gas prices rise or fall) hasn't been going up nearly as much as the gas prices themselves have been.

Anyway, the main point of my topic is that the gas prices here seem to have little to no effect on how people are driving here. Seems like everyone around here keeps buying and driving their big honking trucks. The highway speed near my house is 60 MPH (which I never go above) and every single morning I get passed by dozens of people (not joking) that are going at least 65, and sometimes upwards of 75 (funny how I never see the cops go after them either.)

Even with gas prices ridiculously high, no one here seems to care! Personally speaking, I never go over 2,000 RPM unless I've got a $%#@ing fleet of cars behind me. It's amazing how gas prices rise, everyone complains, yet it's like they try to get the worst mileage as possible. For example, there was a big Ford F350 cube-van behind me today at the stoplight, I'd imagine a big boxy thing like that would only get 11 or 12 MPG tops. Being the fuel-saver wannabe I am, I took off at a slow-pace not going over 2k RPM (which means 0-60 is usually achieved in about 20 seconds for me.) The guy driving the damn thing must have got frusterated that I was going "slow" and trying to be economical and pulled out from behind me (no signal of course) and just cranked the hell out of the thing and had it up to 65+ MPH in no time.

I mean, what's wrong with people? Why am I the only car on the highway (quite literally) being passed and I'm going the normal speed limit (not below, not above, but right on)? When will people wake up and start driving sensibly to conserve their gas?

[MnFocus]

Obviously we travel the same roads Three weeks ago the guy I carpool with were talking about the off kilter mix of cars/trucks/SUV's and vans on the road and the speeds they drive . 10 mile stretch = 2 cars & we were one of them !! The rest any other vehicle . Today, same convo , same stretch of road = 35 cars and 4 any other vehicle . To top that the speeds were real close to our 60mph as opposed to being blown off the road . It *is* sinking in slowly . Won't be over night and it won't be without fright ...but it is happening .

[MetroMPG]

Well, buddy in the cube van probably had is fuel paid for by someone else.

And the other thing is, maybe people just don't realize the connection between speed & dollars.

[JanGeo]

Yeah record profits for the oil companies and the only reason the gas prices are going up is because the USA has used more than their distillery capacity and we will have to start importing fuel now. Big inquiry has been started to find out why 400 billion in profits is not enough for them when they are not re-investing it in exploration or refinery construction.

[slurp812]

Having just recovered from being just like the people you describe, The bottom line, they don't get it. They don't think that driving differently will have any significant effect on mileage. I kinda knew that the way I drove made me get less MPG. Until my last tank, I didn't know how much. I went from 25mpg or so average to 33 in a few tanks..

[Peakster]

Originally Posted by slurp812

The bottom line, they don't get it. They don't think that driving differently will have any significant effect on mileage.

Very true. I used to think that 55 mph was the ultimate speed for maximum FE. Plus a lot of people think that time is money. The more time spent on the road, the less time they could be working at their sawmill jobs.

For instance, If I do 70 mph to Saskatoon and get 40 mpg, it would cost me $19.53 to fill and take 2 hours and 26 minutes to get there. Whereas if I did 50 mph and got 60 mpg, it would save me $6.51 in fuel ($13.52 to fill), but cost me almost an hour more of my time.

The question is what is time worth to you?

[omgwtfbyobbq]

Because gasoline is so inelastic, I think it costs way more than $6.51 in the grand scheme. This wouldn't be a problem if everyone did something as small as drove the speed limit, but it takes a lot to get people to cut back.

[VetteOwner]

rofl i cant shift under 2K rpm or my mpg dropps. but yea every morning i have to deal with the yuppedy tards that think they have to be the first one at work.

i just pulled out into traffic one morning and some dumb woman driving a mercedes came up behind me and flashed her lights(i was going about 45-50 by then) so i just engien braked and she let off a bit but then started riding my butt so i did a brake check and she about wrecked her damn car. she backed WAAAAAAAAAAAAy of from that point on.

its always stupid women in minivans that i enconter that speed,whip around you in traffic, always talking on ther cellphones without thier stupid kids buckled up in the back(i can see them jumping all over the place thru the window). around here women in minivans NEVER get pulled over...

main reason why i think its BS that women automatically get way lower insurance yet they drive like freakin morons around here. just cuz im a guy and i MIGHT get into an accident i have to pay alot more...

that and people who drive with their &^$&*$^ dogs in thier lap licking thier face and whatnot. i would think that a dog licking your face and running freely around your car would be more of a distraction than a cell phone...if thier a member of the family then they should be treated as such and have the dog in a carrier or somehting to protect it in an accident. the dog will go thru the windshield just as easily as a human being so why not protect them too?

lol sorry for my rant but in the US the driving test is a joke and anyone who can sign thier name can get a license it seems.

[GasSavers_Ryland]

People aren't extreamly smart, some guy called up a radio program today when they were talking about fuel hogs, he just bought a brand new Suberban, and said that even tho he didn't really keep fuel logs, he was sure that he was getting "good mileage" with it because it was new, and he serviced it regularly, and that people with compact cars drive around with low tires, and engines that are out of tune, and that they are the real problem, not him with his 10 passenger beast.
I talk to people who know that there are better vehicles out there, a guy just the other day that commutes 30 miles to work in a full size truck, apparently he owned a diesel rabbit about 15 years back, and loved it, but he has a truck now, and of course the people who call you a lier if you tell them that a non hybrid can get a simple 40mpg "if it was possible they would be avalible" it's commen knolage that fuel efficentcy is all in how the vehicle is built, not in how you drive it, and it's just not possible to build an efficent car...
I've heard it's not that much to rent bill boards.

[psyshack]

I think the magic number that will get folks attention is $5.00 a gallon. At $4.00 a gallon the *****ing will really pick up. Dollars are like penny's. People don't seem to care about a penny until they have 5,,, being a nickel. Same with dollars over all. A dollar bill just doesn't mean much to must folks. But a five dollar bill? Now we got some money. You can almost do something with a five'r,, same as a nickel.

One bad hurricane, a few more refinery's going down or more issues over sea's and we will see the $5.00 a gallon gas. At that point the record profits of big oil will be out of control if they aren't building more refinery's. But the fact that we use way to much oil and gas to start with will never be seen by the mass's.

Im to the point of wanting to hug the big SUV driver and pickup/van owners. Here drink some more gas. Hurry,, we maybe running out,,, drink more. It very well maybe the only way we can get to the next step in transportation fuels. Got to have most of the fossil fuel used up.

psy