Today, I paid .35 per gallon for gasoline. Will it ever end...
...when your credit card is maxed out. The most likely scenario for ending it is for changes in automotive technology to reduce demand (biodiesel with or without hybrid technology could turn every McDonald's into an oil well) while the high price encourages exploration that stumbles on new sources of supply that aren't located under disagreeable and warlike people, such as the deepsea exploration that is going on in the Gulf of Mexico. The only quick fix I can suggest is if the State's motorists get together and outshout the NIMBYs and turn all stop signs into yield signs -- incredible amounts of gas are wasted fighting Newton's laws to comply with California's. On the highway, slowing down can be tremendously effective, though you may want to get off the freeways for safety. I drove my car to Phoenix over the 4th and my car has an onboard computer. Driving at 80 (posted limit on I-8 in AZ is 75), I'd get about 24 mpg. Setting the cruise control at 70 (about the lowest safe speed under those circumstances) improved mileage to 27. On a backroad posted for 55, I set the cruise control at 60 (and got passed by several natives), but increased the mileage to 37 mpg. What that amounts to is six gallons of gas saved at a cost of about an hour of my time. $18/hr after tax is not a horrible use of my time. My motorcycle will go a lot faster before speed gets costly, but somewhere over 70-75 mph poorer mileage kicks in. Meantime, enjoy the high prices: it's the effing SUVs that are getting priced off the road. Rich, Urban Biker
Or maybe sort of an ethernet model. Everybody just goes whenever they feel like it. If they experience a collision, they back off and retry. I think this has already been implemented in much of the third world.
