Five-dollar gas
Like unrepentant car-haters everywhere, my friends and I have been cheering the news that gas may soon cost $5.00 a gallon. We realize that this will raise the cost of lots of things we buy, like beer, but we still look forward to the quiet evenings ahead, the silence of the night broken only by the sounds of bike bells, kryptonite locks banging on head tubes, and maladjusted derailleurs.
But then I got to thinking.
If your big shiny SUV gets 15 mpg and gas costs $5.00 a gallon, that means every mile you drive costs you $0.33 in gas. That might put a damper on those really fun, spontaneous trips to Phoenix that everybody gets so excited about, but is it even going to begin to make a dent in your decision to drive that hulking thing around town every time you want a cup of coffee or need to use the ATM? Of course not. No normal person would ever ride a bike two miles to save sixty-five cents.
Only freaks do that.
So, I fear my friends and I will remain freaks up to about the $50.00/gallon point. When it starts costing five bucks to drive two miles, people may start to get on their bikes. But until then, we need some other way to do it.
Which reminds me–the Tuesday Night Community Bike Ride is tonight! See you there!
(P.S. — the photo is from a NY Times blog entry on climate change. My friend Greta sent it to me.)
–Erik Ryberg
March 27th, 2008 at 11:20 am
If folks mostly break it down like that, you’re probably right. It still must hurt though, to put $100 of gas into the GGB (gas guzzing behemoth) every week. It all adds up… Doug
March 27th, 2008 at 2:27 pm
no no no, nobody gets excited to go to Phoenix
July 4th, 2008 at 6:22 pm
[...] few months ago I posted a nasty, cynical post about how gas would have to go up to around $50.00 a gallon before it would make a dent in [...]