Gas!!!

[Dis]

east coast has great gas prices.

Out here in the west we pay the big bucks. I blame California of course.

[Sandman]

Petrol prices and the quality of mass transit have no direct effect on me; I walk everywhere.

Except in the UK we taxed the hell out of petrol and wasted it so we have a totally crap transport infrastructure still.

Well, that's not entirely true, our roads are okay. And at least they make sure everyone is driving efficient cars.

[asleepathewheel]

Yeah, gas shot up here (indiana), to $1.69 a gallon. Now its dipped back down to 1.49

[Dom Pedro II]

JERSEY GAS!!


My girlfriend lived on Long Island and now she lives in Maryland, and she's such a cheapskate that she'll only get gas when she's going through New Jersey, which during the summer is like once a month...


It's cheaper and you're guaranteed to have somebody pump it for you with no extra charge! State Law!


That's what I did for a year.. and have been doing sporadically over this summer... gas pumping, however, sucks on humid days, but the up side is no boss and being paid under the table.

[:) Smiley]

Funny thing though is that despite the cheapest gas in the USA I have darn good mass transit where I live, even though it's a suburb. There's a bus straight into Midtown Manhattan every hour that leaves at the end of my block, and there's a train station with service to NYC in the middle of town.

Fact is that suburbs and good mass transit can coexist. So long as population per acre exceeds 14 people, mass transit can pay for itself. Where I live, it's about 8 houses to an acre, avg. 3 people per house. Got backyards and frontyards, and even a white picket fence. What doesn't work, though, is the new steroid suburbs they're putting up, with 1 or 2 houses per acre and 4-car garages.

[Imran Siddiqui]

It's cheaper and you're guaranteed to have somebody pump it for you with no extra charge!

That's my ONLY problem. After living in Jersey for 22 years and then going to a place when you pump your own gas, pumping your own is VASTLY SUPERIOR! I hate waiting for the idiot attendants

[Dom Pedro II]

I hate waiting for the idiot attendants

[Imran Siddiqui]

As long as you ask me 'Cash or Charge' before assuming I'm paying cash, then you aren't one of them .

[Traianvs]

you should raise your taxes; there wouldn't be so much spoiling; and best of all car companies would invest more in finding out how to make cars waste less oil


that's what happened in Europe; we pay a lot more for our gas, but our cars doesn't need that much gas anyway... A BMW break here gets down to say 8 litres/100km, and that's a pretty big car, small cars could do with 6

I think that's the main reason to tax gas so much; normal consumers like us will keep driving anyway because a lot of people need to use the car anyhow so that won't make much of a difference; it's just the car companies that need a little push.. after all people are going to look for cars that don't waste too much gas...

[Dom Pedro II]

Actually, where I work it doesn't matter... still the same process regardless.



The thing is though that you have to test it out and find what gas station works for you. At my gas station, if somebody wants to pump their own gas, we let them. Hey, it makes our lives easier. There are a lot of blue collar workers and newcomers to the state who do it themselves because they've just been used to doing it for one reason or another.

But there are some stations where if you get out the pumper will tell you to get back in because they're worried about losing their job... so try it... you're bound to find one place that's more lax about policy.

And btw, its the gas station owners, and their organization, that have made sure this legislation stays in place... they are very interested in not having people pump their own gas. The difference in the insurance makes the pumpers worthwhile.

[Verto]

But there are some stations where if you get out the pumper will tell you to get back in because they're worried about losing their job

"Sir, get back in your car. Now."

I'm glad I've got self-serve in Texas!

[:) Smiley]

What have people managed to do so horribly wrong while pumping their own gas in other states?

[BustaMike]

Well, now all the stupid people are starting to manifest. The gas problem is on all news stations now as 'the' story. There are 1-2 hour long lines at the stations that still have gas because of people panicking, not because they need it. Price gauging is happening in a few places. I heard in Casa Grande it was over $3 a gallon .

I am about out but I'm gonna go get some gas at 2 in the morning tonight so I don't have to wait in some stupid ass line.

[Dom Pedro II]

Hmm... wow... being in the Smog Capital of the World, I've been blissfully unaware.

Smiley: It has to do with crime... muggings and such like that.

Yeah, not to many reports of gas stations blown to kingdom come by some *sshole smoking a cigarette out by the pumps.

Not that its ever been an issue for us. One of my co-workers, Sean, used to smoke by the pumps all the time...

And that cell phone thing is crap too... its EXTREMELY unlikely to cause an explosion.

[Verto]

Women who get in and out of their car while pumping gas have caused explosions, through the static electricity or some idiotic nonsense like that. Or, so said CNN.