Fuel Boycott on the 19th !!

Gatorboy · May 18, 2004

Yeah, don't buy gas on the 19th. I'm also going to send 5 emails to a friend and Microsoft will send me some money and then I've got a person in Nigeria I'm helping get his money into this country -- and he's going to give me a slice of the pie with my help. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Hold on, I just got another fine piece of email -- looks like I'm qualified for a super mortgage refinancing rate!

Bob_Skurka · May 18, 2004

Seems to me that the price of gas is so high because everyone on TBN bought a new jumbo size pick up truck with a jumbo size engine!?!

OK seriously the fuel economy of the typical vehicle driven by Americans is going DOWN because we (myself included) like big cars, big trucks and big SUVs with big engines. The math is pretty simple, lots of big ineffecient vehicles means lower fuel mileage, means higher fuel consumption. The laws of supply and demand kick in and we end up with $2 per gallon of gas!

So who is to blame?

Bird · May 18, 2004

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Hold on, I just got another fine piece of email -- looks like I'm qualified for a super mortgage refinancing rate! )</font>

Wonder if it's the same outfit that's sending me two or three e-mails a day for the past couple of weeks, apologizing for taking so long to process my application, but saying that I've been approved for the best interest rate. I haven't clicked on their link, since I don't remember making a mortgage application; just keep deleting the e-mails. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

LarryRB · May 18, 2004

Bird
your no fun, go ahead and click the link. It (IS) 2.5% interest. What you can barely see in small print though, the interest compounds hourly, for that great rate..

Mosey · May 18, 2004

I'm going to participate - I guess. Only by pure chance though. I bought gas yesterday, so I won't need to buy any more for at least a week.

As for the suggestions to ride a bike. I've wanted to ride a bike to work for a long time. I even tried it for a while when I lived in the city (Colorado Springs). But, it's just not safe! Riding along the side of the road and then having someone in a vehicle go bombing past me with only about 3' of clearance scared the **** out of me too many times, so I gave it up. At that time I was only 1.5 miles from work, so I walked on the sidewalks. That was fine until I got bite by a dog!

Until we get some decent bike paths, bikes are just not practical. For example, for me right now I would have a 16 mile one way bike ride to work. The first 3 miles are very narrow rural roads with no shoulder and lots of curves and hills. The mid section of the trip is on a state highway with a nice wide shoulder, so that wouldn't be bad at all. The last 3 miles are on city streets. I could try riding on the sidewalk, but that's illegal and would really be a pain because the curbs are not sloped, so it would be a really bumpy ride at all the intersections.

Gatorboy · May 18, 2004

If gas prices continue to climb, you may start to see more bike paths emerging like they have in Denmark, for example.

Roadways have really become un-bike friendly. My son (15), 3-weeks ago, got his first job about 3 miles away, but I won't let him ride his bike to work because for about 1 mile of the trip there is only about a 6 inch shoulder on this 2-lane road.

Mosey · May 18, 2004

Bikes are a great way to travel. They are amazingly efficient. They would also help with Egon's issue of "Massive decline in weight challenged people"!

Egon · May 18, 2004

I used to ride a bike to work. 24 kilometer round trip. It was exspecially enjoyable coming home after a night shift. At about -10 celcius I'd use the car.

Then, at about 52/53 years of age the old body just couldn't handle the 12 hour shifts and the bike ride. Or maybe just got lazy.

Egon

EastTexFrank · May 18, 2004

TresCrows,

Unfortunately most people won't believe you because oil companies are such an easy target. They seem to think that if gas goes from $1.50/gal to $2.50/gal the extra dollar is additional profit for the oil company. Now oil companies will protect their profit margin but they don't make substantially any more from $2.50 gas than they do from $1.50 gas. You can't control the price of gas until you control the price of the feedstock at the refineries and we don't produce enough domestic oil to make a difference and we're not likely to until drilling is allowed in California, Alaska, Florida and up the east coast. Sorry but that is the reality of the situation. You make your choices and you live with them ... no drilling, no oil, higher prices!!! Simple really.

Now that's about as political as I'm going to get ... nothing about tree-huggers who can afford to pay the higher prices forcing the poor working slob, who can least afford it, to pay in order to maintain the view from their multi-million dollar beach condos. I promise ... no more.

It's also strange that we are complaining about $2/gal gas when other people such as Europeans are paying $8 -$11/gal. Again, who's making the profit there? It's not the oil companies, it's the governments but that's why they drive smaller cars too.

I've also got another one for Gatorboy to add to his list. "Dear Citibank customer please go to this website and enter your ATM card number and pin number in the boxes provided for verification".