Gas Prices

[hkellick]

So.. a question (and another public entry!)

They're predicting gas prices to go up to $5 again for a while.

How much do you have to pay to fill up your vehicle before the price of gas outweighs the convenience of having your own vehicle? How much until you switch to biking/walking/mass transport?

If gas does go up to $5 or more per gallon, what do you intend to do?

Comments

[phoenixsong]

You're forgetting paying for parking in DC, though. Which is curbside robbery.

Here's how my costs break down on Metro, assuming I am not carpooling:
$2.65-2.70 each direction, depending on where I get off (since I'm trying to walk more anyway)
$3.50/day parking
Get to the station by 7:15am, get to work around 7:50, give or take a few minutes.
Leave work between 5 and 5:15pm, get home around 6pm
Total cost: Under $50/week, and we'll call it approx. 45 minutes of low-stress commute each way. Even if I do a couple hours of errands one day during the weekend, a tank of gas can last me up to two weeks.

Here's what it would cost me to drive every day:
$13/day for the nearest parking garage, or trying to find enough change to park at a meter and not get ticketed.
No idea how long the drive would be, because that would depend on traffic, but I hate city driving, so either way it'd be much more stressful.
And I'd definitely be going through gas faster, between the longer drive and the possibility of getting caught in traffic and burning gas going nowhere.
Let's say a tank of gas lasts me a week; current price for gas nearest me is 2.89 as of this morning. So, $29/week if I push that tank as far as I dare
Total costs: $94/week, and a lot more stress.

I'll never claim Metro is perfect -- I wish they ran trains more frequently on weekends, for example. But since most of my travel time is commuting anyway, it's a lot better both in terms of financial and emotional/stress costs than driving. And I know I'm not the only one who feels that way.

[sskipstress.livejournal.com]

I wish they ran trains later at night. Especially on weekends.

[phoenixsong]

Friday and Saturday they run to 3am the following day. It's the waiting 15 or more minutes for the right train, especially in a dual-line station, that gets to me.

That's the point where driving makes more sense, on weekends.

[sskipstress.livejournal.com]

A number of times I've realized I'd be coming home later than the last transfer I could make, so I drove to places I could easily Metro to if the trains ran later.