travlintoes

Gasoline here in San Antonio runs from $2.69 to 2.99. In Oregon it's up to $2.99 for regular. I know we consider this high. I also know gas has ALWAYS been considerably higher in England and Europe--just wondering if they are also feeling a ka-ching crunch.

stormbird

We too, are feeling the pinch downunder. Our fuel is running at about $1.40 PER LITRE. Remembering that it is about 4 litres to the gallon someone here is having a very big ka-ching moment.

Gary_Mc

We were just vacationing in Germany, where gas was about $6.00/gal. I was impressed by all the small cars and could see why (not only gas but parking). Then, someone pulled up to a red light in Würzburg with a huge Hummer. I thought to myself that there was a rich man, or vehicle that did not get driven much. It was worth a chuckle.

Regards, Gary

sheila

Yes, the rates are down here too. It seems to be down to lack of refining capacity in the States, after Katrina.

sheila

Ooops. For "down" read "up".

My excuse is, I haven't had my coffee yet.....

Tallulah

We get a really bad deal in fuel here in the UK. I was in the States last month and for me it was a JOY to fill the car up and pay for it because I felt as though I was getting SUCH a good deal!

I know that it's all relative but I suppose that we compensate over here by driving smaller and more economical cars. Then again we don't necesarily drive the same kind of distances as you guys do over there. Oh, and we also make use of something called public transport!!!!

arbegold

We're living in Oxford UK and the price of gas for a US gallon (after conversion) on 29 April was $6.28. Part of the price due to a recent 5% decline of the $ against the £.

xyz123

Well when I was in London last week, I passed a petrol station with regular listed at 99p/liter..

With about 4 liters to a US gallon (as opposed to an imperial gallon which is larger) that translates into approximately £3.96/gallon. Using $1.78 as the exchange rate (it ran much higher last week) that would give us an approximate price per US gallon as $7.04 US/gallon....fill up a 10 gallon tank and you're talking $70...no wonder they need great public transportation in London....

PatrickLondon

A substantial part of the pump price in the UK is taxation. There is a political judgment to be made about how the increase in source prices should affect the final pump price. I'm saying no more than that, since I don't have a car.

twk

There have been some good articles on this subject recently, but, refined fuel prices in the US are rising over and above what would be dictated by the increase in the price of crude oil, for a number of reasons: limited refining capacity (no new refineries have been built in decades); increasing the number of region-specific blends from 6 to 17 (and further fragmenting the market); and, regulations requiring the inclusion of ehtanol (which cannot be shipped in pipelines--must be shipped by truck or tank car).

PBProvence

Here in the south of France, gas is presently about $ 6.80 a gallon (factoring in the present exchange rate). About 78% of that is government tax.

I, and everyone I know, "groups" their errands so they don't drive as often.

Then it's just so refreshing (NOT) to read that some retiring oil company CEO has a package that will basically be paying him $ 144,000 per day in retirement. swell....

PB

walkinaround

>>>>>
don't necesarily drive the same kind of distances as you guys do over there. Oh, and we also make use of something called public transport
>>>>>

i don't think this is really the case. it's always been the case that many americans have a "we're different" kind of attitude when it comes to petrol prices due to the supposed large distances that supposedly must be driven in the US. perhaps this was true decades ago in the US but no longer. the vast majority of americans have just about every convenience located within a few miles. i do concede that there is typically less walkable conveniences available to americans, however, the conveniences are usually a short car ride away.

in the UK, people often have to go considerably further as there are less stores and they are less spread out to where people live. Land use laws restrict the building of a super-store every mile in the suburbs.

Likewise, i don't think there is a big difference in commuting distances in the US vs the UK. in the UK, various factors mean that people often work very far from where they live and the housing and job markets are not as fluid as in the US...therefore, switching either in pursuit of a shorter commute is often not practical.

as for public transport, the US has one huge advantage in the yellow school bus. traffic and petrol use is outrageous due to the morning school run whereby everyone gets in their individual cars to take their children to school.

Gardyloo

There was a very (very, very, considering the source) small table in yesterday's <i>Wall Street Journal</i> setting out the various prices of fuel and the taxes paid at the pump, for 6 European countries and the US (averages) as of 10 April, so while a bit out of date still revealing.

I can't paste tables into Fodors, sadly, so bear with me -

Average price in USD per US gallon - around 4 litres - after all conversions:

Belgium, $6.10, of which $3.77 in taxes, net price of fuel $2.33;

Britain, $6.13, of which $4.03 in taxes, net price of fuel $2.10;

France, $5.80, $3.65, $2.15;

Germany, $5.96, $3.82, $2.14;

Italy, $5.91, $3.57, $2.34;

Netherlands, $6.73, $4.12, $2.61;

<b>USA, $2.98, $0.38, $2.60.</b>

(I believe the US price is mis-stated. $2.98 is the current price; the 10 April price according to the US Dept of Energy was $2.68, which would make the net price $2.30 - more in line with European prices.)

Obviously the big distinction is in taxes levied. The public policy question is what are the various governments doing with those taxes? Public transit? Health care? Pollution control? Military operations?

Bottom line, fill up in Germany before traveling into Holland.

L84SKY

Gary__Mc
I read an interview with a guy that bought foreclosed houses. He said when he saw a hummer he followed it home to see his newest aqusition.
Here in San Diego it was 3.29 for the 89- premium is up to 3.49. When I got my first car gas was .35/gal.

xyz123

I think to a degree it is a generalization to say there is an American way of commuting...

Commuting in say the NY Metro area is far different than commuting in the southern California area...

I know, although it has changed to some degree, there was and is very little public transport in the LA area...people in that area would think nothing of hopping in their cars for a 60 mile commute from the inland empire to downtwon LA, in reality they had little choice whereas folks living in Northern New Jersey could get in their cars to commute into Manhattan or they could take ever present commuter railroads and/or buses...as a matter of fact when gasoline started to increase, many Southern California legislators asked for special considerations for Southern California commuters because of how it was built on the principle that gasoline would always be cheap (notice that most California freeways do not charge tolls...freeways in the northeast do not exist, they are almost all toll roads).

I would doubt that anywhere in the British isles would 60 mile car commutes be the norm...people living 60 miles from their jobs would most likely be taking public transport much like they do in the north eastern United States whereas in the Western parts of the US and the sun belt,60 mile commutes by car, at least up until now, have been an every day occurance.

ira

Once upon a time, when Great Uncle was a little boy, one could take a bus or a trolley to work if one lived in a big city in the US.

There were also &quot;interurban&quot; light rail systems, eg, Baltimore to Washington, DC.

For longer trips one could take a train. In those days, passenger trains had priority over freight.

In my little town of Madison, one could take the train to Atlanta or to Savannah for a daytrip.

In 1956, Congress passed, and President Eisenhower signed, the Interstate Highway Defense Act.

There are now about 45,000 miles of &quot;Interstate Highways&quot;, many of which are commuter roads.

Freight trains have priority over those passenger trains that still run.

Public transportation in most cities has dropped to little or none.

The last train between Madison and Atlanta ran in 1967.

For contrast, there are 10 trains from Roskilde center to Copenhagen center between 07:00 and 08:00 each weekday morning. The train averages 60 mph.

Commuters from Madison average 40 mph, even though the speed limit up to I295 is 65 - 70 mph.

Commuters in Atlanta average under 30 mph during rush hour.

walkinaround

xyz...if you work 60 miles from london, most people would take the train (as they would living 60 miles from NYC). however, much of the country is not well served by frequent trains and they can be very expensive and inconvenient. therefore, it is not uncommon for people to drive 50-75 miles to work each way.

this is for the reasons that i gave above plus the fact that many people here work on contract (temporary work for months or years). most people don't move when they get a new contract but often suffer terrible commutes. home ownership is deeply rooted in the culture so long term lets are not an accepted option. buying and selling a home is much more hassle than in the US (and just not the &quot;done&quot; thing) so people just swallow the expense of the long commute.

anyway, if we DO accept that american drivers must drive longer distances than euopeans, shouldn't that mean that they use more efficient cars as the effects of inefficiency would be amplified by these greater distances?

Tallulah

walkinaround: Actually you're probably right but I do tend to be terribly London-centric in my thinking. Clearly public transport is used so much more regularly here than in other parts of the UK. As I'm sure it is in the major US cities, particularly those in the North East. My last visit to the US was in March and I was in the LA area and I guess my initial statement was clouded by that...

xyz123

walkinaround...

I certainly stand corrected although I wonder if one's job influences more strongly where one lives; especiallyif there is a lack of public transport given the relative expensive cost of petrol....

The point I was trying to make is that, especially on both the left coast and the sun belt of the US, the construction of motorways which we call interstates (or freeways if there are no tolls) and the availability of very cheap gas meant this was not a concern...it was relatively common in these areas for one to commute 60 miles each way in one's own vehicle...I'm not sure this would also be true say in Britain (although given the relatively small size of the country, one would think there are numerically many fewer people in that category)...

In the USA, of course, when gasoline was cheap, fuel efficiency was never a strong consideration of many Americans...now of course people are having second thoughts...whereas in many European countries with the higher cost of fuel fuel efficiency was always much more important.

Here in the USA, so many Americans loved their large suv's under the misguided assumption that it was safer to be in an SUV (something statistics do not necessarily bear out) in case of an accident (of course the statistics do not reflect how many more single vehicle roll over accident there have been with suv's but that's a topic for another discussion)...now some of the American car manufacturers are beginning to wonder if they are going to have to rethink their pushing of these gas guzzling vehicles....

L84SKY

walkinaround, you mentioned the yellow school buses and it's a pet peeve of mine to see these buses with only 1 or maybe on a good day 2 children riding them. grrrr
The rising prices of gas may be a good thing. Most of us could stand to get a little more walking in, especially the kids. I feel sorry for these fat little kids who may never know what it's like to be in great physical shape.
If we start building and using public transpo we might all loose the weight equivalent to a second suitcase. How many of us would consider carrying that around on vacation, much less in life?