Have you changed your driving habits due to rising gas prices?

[Nutmegger]

Poll question: Have you changed your driving habits due to rising gas prices?

I take the bus a few times a week to work / school / errands and when I do drive (which is a few times a week), I go about 55 MPH. Of course, some joe blow always rides my ass for two miles. :mad::grr::mad::grr::mad:

So I wouldn't say a drastic change but a change nonetheless. Feel free to discuss. :)

[frankenforpres]

1. i drive a motorcycle

so i see higher gas prices as a way to help hugo chavez and the environment.............................kidding, but the gas prices dont hurt me. but i still wish they were lower

[GRLMGC]

2. I'm trying to figure out away

to avoid driving this summer but nothing is particularly feasible

[skids]

3. No but...

...being unemployed and owning a pretty darn fuel efficient car has made that pretty much uneccessary.

[RoyGBiv]

4. Not in the least ...

The vehicle I current drive has a 14 gallon tank. I fill it about once every three weeks, which is to say I adjusted my driving habits about the time I got out of the phase from my teens of wanting to drive anywhere and everywhere randomly.

One thing I have changed recently is to make sure my tire pressure is correct, that my oil is changed, that my engine is finely tuned, etc. I've always paid attention to such things, but I've become more aware of it recently and have decided not to put off something like changing the oil just because I don't feel like doing it. All this helps keep my gas mileage high.

[anitar1]

6. I have worked on changing driving habits for over a year.

Now I do all my errands in one day and plot my course before I leave home. It has become a habit now and is easy.Sometimes a friend and I trade off driving also, and that helps.

[Breeze54]

7. I'm with you! I try to make all my errands count as one! n/t

[RoyGBiv]

12. I'm kinda lucky ...

Well, it's part luck and part planning.

I live about 10 miles from where I work, which is more distant than I'd like, but not too bad. I've thought about moving into the neighborhood nearer my office so I could walk or bike, but I suspect trips to the hospital and/or calling the police nightly might defeat the purpose. (Bad neighborhood some genius at corporate decided to use because of the incredibly low price of rent.) I tried biking it anyway once, but I nearly got killed in the traffic.

Anyway, along the road from my apartment to my office is a grocery store, my bank, a bread store, a mechanic, several restaurants, the post office, a tag agency, my insurance company ... I could go on. Basically, I can take care of everything I really need to take care of when I drive to or from work.

[Selatius]

5. Some people are unable to change their driving habits

If you live an hour away from work in places like Los Angeles, you have to take the freeway every damn day. Sprawl makes the situation even worse as everything is spread out.

We dismantled our light-rail systems decades ago in favor of personal mobility in the form of the car, and we never upgraded our heavy rail systems to modern high speed rails like those in Europe and Japan. They've got bullet trains now and are experimenting with magnetic levitation trains. Even the Chinese are experimenting with high-speed rail.

We have done hardly anything in comparison. It is a humbling experience to see that the richest nation in the world is last among the world's industrial powers when it comes to advanced mass transit.

[DrGonzoLives]

25. But mass transit is TEH COMMUNISM!!!!!1!omgz

Only worthless hippie tree-hugging queers want commie mass transit! :sarcasm:

[leveymg]

8. Feel free to take the bus or move over

Don't enforce your driving habits on others. Stay in the right lane if you're driving 55 mph.

[Nutmegger]

14. Huh?

I'm not enforcing my habits on anybody. If someone wants to go 70, go for it. Just don't ride me for two miles then finally pass and give me a nasty look.


And for the record, I know about the right lane.


Sheeeeesh!

[DrGonzoLives]

24. Someone's a bit touchy

Hey, if you want to be a BIG MAN and blast through the countryside at 85 mph because you think it's cool, be our guest. The OP just asked a question.

[Nicole]

9. Not at all

I didn't drive much before the prices went up. I walk or ride the bus 90% of the time.

[Quantess]

10. I drive like an old lady these days, sort of...

These days, I drive the speed limit, and I pull over to let lead-foot-speeders pass me. I turn off the ignition if I think my vehicle will idle for a while. And yes, I do avoid unnecessary driving.

That said, I heard the CEO of Exxon makes more $ per minute than most of us make per hour, times 5. (edited to say, AT LEAST times 10).

I remember the days when $0.89 per gallon was asking a lot.

[TomInTib]

11. I don't drive, and..

the grocery stores (one is really fine and the other stocks affordable wine) are a short walk down the hill.

[SeattleVet]

13. I mostly drive a 200cc scooter. Right around 70MPG, but it'll also

get up and do 70 on the freeway when I have to. It's cut the gas bills WAY down.

[Robbie Michaels]

15. I'd Take Public Transportation But...

I live so close to work that I spend less on gas in a month than the cost of a bus pass. They're also discontinuing the nighttime bus route that goes by my home in a couple of months.

[Yollam]

16. No, but gas prices have hardly risen in Japan.

Like most people here, I only drive on weekends. I work at home and get around town via bus or subway mostly.

Odd that prices have more than doubled in the states compared to 4 years ago, but here they are only about 15% higher.

Can you say "gouging", children?

[skyblue]

17. Bought a New Car with better fuel mileage.

My car was on its last legs, so I bought a car that had fuel mileage than the old one. I let Blow pass me and then I honk my horn like a maniac, which I hope Blows car stereo isn't so loud that he can't hear.

[B Calm]

18. I have slowed down big time.

[Hekate]

19. Not yet, but I still have about half a tank of gas. When I have to refill

...I don't know. Gas in our area is already well over $3/gal.

I already own a Toyota, but since it's 16 years old the mileage is slipping. OTOH, my whole driving life I've been aware of conservation, so I consolidate my errands and then run errands in a loop. This also saves time. In our area, using the bus for errands "costs" a huge chunk of time.

Unlike me, my husband would be more than happy to give up driving. He commutes a whole 10 miles to work every day in our even-older Tercel, and I don't have a commute, so we're lucky that way. If he worked a regular 8am-5pm job, he could use the express bus to get to and from work -- but he teaches college classes at night, and there is nothing but a personal car that accomodates this schedule.

We are so lucky, compared to those who have to commute 60+ miles to get to their jobs.

But the entire Western half of the country was pretty much built around the automobile, with everything spread out in all directions. At every crossroad, so to speak, people keep choosing pavement over rails, and individual cars over mass transit. It's stupid, but for the time being we are stuck with it. If and only if gas prices remain painfully high, will the masses start pushing for change urgently enough to make it happen.

For sure, the next time I fill my tank with Regular I'm going to howl.

Hekate

[Kahuna]

20. For over a year now. I now...

consider whether a trip is worth it. No more just getting out for a drive just to get some air.

[NaturalHigh]

21. We really don't have a way to make drastic changes.

I drive a Honda which gets fantastic gas mileage, and my wife drives a Trailblazer, which does okay. We don't make a lot of unnecessary trips, but I have been watching how I drive to maximize what my little car will do.

[trof]

22. I have. Miz t. doesn't quite get it yet.

We live about 15 miles from town/shopping.
In our mini-van that's a little over a gallon of gas, round-trip.
Yesterday I paid $2.99/gal. for regular in coastal Alabama.

Unless I say something, she would still happily hop in the car to get a loaf of bread or put a small check in the bank.

I try to combine several uptown errands into one trip.

[MadHound]

23. Yes, I bought a new vehicle last fall that gets much better gas mileage

A Bajaj scooter. It gets 100mpg, it cruises at 55-60mph. I've been riding it every dry day when the temp is 30 degrees or warmer. I absolutely love it!

I had to do something, for I've got a 52 mile round trip commute everyday. My little Nissan four banger truck gets decent gas mileage, but with gas over three dollars a gallon, I was still getting eaten up. Now I just sail on by, stopping every other day to pump in a gallon.