I payed $3.35 a gallon in gas today.

[Quagmire]

I haven't bought a gallon of gas since 2002.

 

[Mathematician]

Plenty of people commute further than that in the UK. Someone at my sisters work commutes from Paris to London on the eurostar everyday, and another comes from the Isle of Wight every day.

Yeah but the population in the West and South isn't as highly concentrated as Europe and the North-East making public transportation a lot less economical at the moment. For example my university is about 40 minutes north of where I live, and Dallas is an hour South. My ex-girlfriend stayed at a friend's lake house that was about an hour and a half north of where I live, and after talking to some people I discovered that a 2-2.5 hour commute wasn't rare. I would die. I love driving in the far reaches of North Texas where it's all lake houses and pastures, but on the highway it's a mess.

We recently installed a new rail system, but it's very limited. You have to drive to the train station because it's a 90+ minute walk otherwise.

I've been to Europe (Germany, Greece, UK, Turkey). What Texans consider a city is usually anything but. Dallas, Austin, and Houston would be considered small by other standards, yet locals think of San Antonio and Ft. Worth as huge demographic hubs. Ft. Worth is literally three skyscrapers.

Well you live too far away from your place of work. But that is a problem with the general bad outline of cities in the US.

All electronics companies (Texas Instruments, E.A., etc) are concentrated in Richardson and Dallas whereas a lot of grain mills and farms are concentrated in the Texas-Oklahoma border. There's not much choice for a lot of people. Living in either city is just too expensive for a lot of families. Paying $100 a week in gas actually makes more sense than paying $10,000+ in taxes and rent. Plus a lot of people prefer to live outside of urban sprawl.

 

[Penumbra]

I generally don't check gas prices before I buy it.

I keep my driving to a minimum anyway, and U.S. gas prices are lower than in many other places.

 

[Revoltingest]

I generally don't check gas prices before I buy it.

Someone doesn't have a 38 gallon tank!

 

[Penumbra]

Someone doesn't have a 38 gallon tank!

I have a compact car. Very short commute and little extra driving = rather little gas used.

Up to a certain point, if I need gas anyway, then I'm getting it regardless of what the price is.

So I can't remember the last time I checked what the price of gas is around here. It's $3-something.

I glance at the receipt total before driving away.

 

[Falvlun]

It's been hovering around $4.09 in my neck of the woods. People are still driving.

 

[Alceste]

I want to get an MG Mini that doesn't run and convert it to an electric engine. I have a feeling that might be quite affordable.

 

[Revoltingest]

I want to get an MG Mini that doesn't run and convert it to an electric engine. I have a feeling that might be quite affordable.

Conversions can be fun for tinkerers, buy it's a lotta work to make something useful, & you won't really save any money.
My advice:
Buy a good cheap car with reasonable fuel economy & don't drive it much.