I feel Violated

[Zimbacca]

Americans also tend to like living away from big cites.  I personally can't stand the country.

[Lord Nepenthean]

Getting to my job or school is about a 20-30 minute drive, and they are in opposite directions of my house, so going from one to the other would take over 40 minutes, and that's when I'm driving on the highway at 65 miles per hour.  Walking at 5 miles per hour would take quite a bit longer (several hours each way), especially since there are no sidewalks, and I wouldn't be legally allowed to walk on the highways.  Pretty much all job applications here now ask if you have "reliable transportation," meaning a car - because they are necessary to work if you live anywhere but the middle of the city, which is rare around here.

Live closer to my job and school?  Well, Cincinnati just doesn't have the urban housing that many European or South American cities have.  Many of the urban neighborhoods are not safe, are physically falling apart, or are just the opposite - in very high demand and very, very expensive.  Besides that, I'm paying for college, so it makes it a lot cheaper to live at home with the parents than trying to pay inflated rent prices near a college campus.

[Hydrobond]

We also need light rail.  Why did we ever have to abandon our subway?

[Lord Nepenthean]

Hooray for the Great Depression.

[Hydrobond]

Are you talking about UC to Jungle Jims taking 40 minutes? I dont belive that at 65 MPH.  With traffic it could take upwards of an hour, but I just don't see a 17 mile trip taking 40 minutes.
http://maps.google.com/ma...0908%2C0.308172&hl=en

[Hydrobond]

I seriously doubt those are the same scale.

Hey, this was your 2000th post.  Congrats.

[thx1138]

Depends where you live really.  France and Germany are big countries and you still have to pay almost $2 a litre.

Heh, just took a 7.5tonne Mercedez truck from Bedford to St.Malo in France, to drop some furniture off, and was delighted at how cheap the diesel was compared to the U.K

[Hydrobond]

Is gas just taxed that much over in Europe or do we just really get that good of a deal per barrel?

[TraderJake]

Are you talking about UC to Jungle Jims taking 40 minutes? I dont belive that at 65 MPH.  With traffic it could take upwards of an hour, but I just don't see a 17 mile trip taking 40 minutes.

I'd say from UC to Jungle Jims it would be a 40 minute drive under normal conditions any day, but that is just from experience. With traffic, It would take well over an hour. Thanks I-75! Luckily Vine St. runs parallel to 75 and eventually turns into Springfield Pike, so you can always avoid 75 all together.

[thx1138]

It's taxed sooo much it's unbeliavble (oh, and a U.K gallon is slightly larger than  a U.S gallon, but even so, it's still far too expensive) but per litre diesel is as much as 98 pence in places here, and as cheap as 69pence per litre in parts of France and Ireland (from my expereinces in the last 4 weeks).

TAX it is. We got pulled by customs yesterday, all they were interested in, was looking for contraband tobacco, cos that's so heavily taxed. We had 200 bottles of wine, 2 dozen crates of beer etc etc, they didn't even examine them., just wanted to know if we had tobacco. Only allowed 3 kilos of that.

[Hydrobond]

I'd say from UC to Jungle Jims it would be a 40 minute drive under normal conditions any day, but that is just from experience. With traffic, It would take well over an hour. Thanks I-75! Luckily Vine St. runs parallel to 75 and eventually turns into Springfield Pike, so you can always avoid 75 all together.

That's why I said @ 65MPH.  I know it could take an hour with traffic, I live here too.  But in the middle of the day it should be a 25 minute trip, especially considering the average speed on 75 is well over 65 during most of the day.


THX -
Please tell me all that alcohol isn't for you.  Thats a hell of a load.

[Arrrhalomynn]

I know the situation is worse in the USA than it is in Europe, but it's definately no disaster.  It seems that everyone thinks that low gas prices are the result of situations that lead to more car usage: 'gas prices need to be cheap, because there's no public transport and everything is far apart'.

But it might as well be the cause of that situation. If in the early days cars weren't made available to everyone at cheap prices with cheap gas the whole country might have looked very different. And if low gas prices cause situations in which you will need your car a lot, high prices might cause the opposite. The demand for public transport will increase. Housing will be more concentrated. Maybe shops will be opened again near smaller villages. etc. etc.

It's not as if everything will just (have to) stay the same, just because it's like that now. We will run out of fossil fuels sooner or later anyway.

[thx1138]

THX -
Please tell me all that alcohol isn't for you.  Thats a hell of a load.

The beer was mine, most of the wine was my friends. I had a few bottles of Absenthe though, and some cask condition Grouse whiskey at 59% alc. instead of the usual 40%

[thx1138]

going off topic got a moment, I've never known it this busy before

so many replies in a thread, so close togehter in time

[Lord Nepenthean]

I know the situation is worse in the USA than it is in Europe, but it's definately no disaster.  It seems that everyone thinks that low gas prices are the result of situations that lead to more car usage: 'gas prices need to be cheap, because there's no public transport and everything is far apart'.

But it might as well be the cause of that situation. If in the early days cars weren't made available to everyone at cheap prices with cheap gas the whole country might have looked very different. And if low gas prices cause situations in which you will need your car a lot, high prices might cause the opposite. The demand for public transport will increase. Housing will be more concentrated. Maybe shops will be opened again near smaller villages. etc. etc.

It's not as if everything will just (have to) stay the same, just because it's like that now. We will run out of fossil fuels sooner or later anyway.

Yeah, I agree completely.  I think it'd be great if this happened.  But like I said, what option is there right now?  I can send letters to my congressman, but my opinion will be outnumbered by a lot to people who just want to keep driving their SUV's for all of eternity, poluting the air and keeping this country dependent on the Middle East.  It would be nice if things changed here in relation to fuel sources and everything related, but I just don't see it happening anytime soon.