An Oil Free Holiday

[Eclipse]

And let's not forget those smug alerts!   

http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/155193

[mikeylikey]

You Sir are awesome!  And you caught me.......

I take all my life lessons from Eric Cartman. 

[DNall]

How do you follow such genius? HOW!?!?!

Well, if any of you pinko commie hippies want to work on the capitalist voucher system. I'll be stuck at freakin crappy training for two months w/o driving. I'm charging $6.50 per day (that's 1/31st [about] of that $200 monthly bus pass). I don't drive, you do, but you can feel better about yourself cause you're paying for one person's worth of no gas (depending on what they serve in the chow hall). 

[Eclipse]

You can't!  There is no greater truth than South Park. 
(now I have to go watch both of these episodes all the way through!)

[SSgt Rudin]

I actully had this conversation in my technical writing class today.

The Campus I go to is about 30 miles from my house, 26 of those miles is highway so it is about a 20 minute drive. If I don't take the highway it is over an hour drive. I researched what it would take for me to take the bus to school. My first class is at noon.

To take the bus

Leave house NLT ................... 8:45am
3 mile walk to bus stop .......... 1 hourish
Bus leaves stop.......................9:47
Arrive at transfer terminal........10:15
Leave transfer terminal............11:15
Arrive at school.........................11:35
I could take a bus 1 hour later but it would get to the terminal at the same time my next bus is supposed to leave

Last class gets out at 4pm
first bus leaving school ............ 4:46
arrive at transfer terminal ....... 5:09
leave transfer terminal............. 5:30
arrive at bus stop .................... 6:01
3 mile walk home ..................... 1 hour
Arrive home ............................. 7:01

I could only do this two days a week since the other two I have CAP which starts at 6:30 and I usually get there close to 6 to open the building.

All of this is great, but I know people who take the bus and they say you can expect the bus to always be late, sometimes up to 10 minutes. And if you have to transfer buses you need to leave on the next earlier bus otherwise you will miss your transfer 8 times out of 10.

If the county can improve the transit system, I'll start using it, but right now it is unreliable and takes too long. Also there are no "park and ride" bus stops, if they had that I would defiantly be considering it more.

EDIT: I forgot to put in that a 31 day student bus pass is $20, but they just came out with that on the 1st of may, prior to that is was $40 for a 31 day adult pass.

[_]

This has hit one of my triggers so I had to write this.  I apologize for the length

We've been spoiled for quite a while with the prices we got.  Most of Europe has been paying high prices forever, hence the matchbox cars they drive and the well developed public transportation.  We have built our complete infrastructure on the assumption of an abundance of easily affordable oil.  If you do the math it does not seem to be as big of a deal that prices have gone up as many make it out to be, however the wider spread affect of gas prices is much greater.  As prices go up the economy will take time to figure out who has to pay the added expense.  For the time being it will be people who don't have a lot of control on those factors like the independent truck drivers that will feel more pressure.  The economy will also continue to be negatively affected because the economy is based on how people feel about the economy.  If people panic, prices go up.  If people are calm, prices level off or get lower.  Protesting by not buying gas one day has absolutely no effect.  You'll have to get gas eventually.  Buying a high mileage car is great, finding alternate means of transportation is great, not traveling as much sucks but helps.  Practicality will always dictate how we do things.  We're not at the point where everyone can be expected to be absolutely carbon neutral, "green", etc.  Give it a couple years and we'll see how far we get with developing technology.

My main beef with gas prices is when it comes to driving a CAP van.  It's hard to go out and drive around a CAP van all day on a SAREX and then put $100-$150 to fill up the tank and wait months up to a year to get reimbursed.  Do a couple SAREXs and the money adds up.


Hey Mikey how about "I deserve a college degree because the classes I'm taking are hard, even if I get failing grades"?  Please can I at least have that? 

[DNall]

when I was in DC this past wknd they were doing a thing on the radio... Bike, car & bus from one suburb into the same downtown location (the station). Bike of course was free, but got there way late & needing a shower. Car was about 5 bucks, got the fastest. Bus got there on time, cost about 2bucks, BUT it cost $11 to park at the park-n-ride lot.

[SSgt Rudin]

when I was in DC this past wknd they were doing a thing on the radio... Bike, car & bus from one suburb into the same downtown location (the station). Bike of course was free, but got there way late & needing a shower. Car was about 5 bucks, got the fastest. Bus got there on time, cost about 2bucks, BUT it cost $11 to park at the park-n-ride lot.

lol, $11 to park you car in a park-n-ride lot... thats ridiculous, I only pay $6 to park when I go to the beach, and I get to go to the beach, not ride a bus with smelly people. Even parking at South Beach is only $10. Now when I go to the clubs downtown those bastards charge $15-$20, but luckily there is a parking garage for the downtown campus of my school about 3 blocks from the clubs so I park for free (well it's part of my tuition).

[jimmydeanno]

I have a 42 mile commute to work.  It costs me ~$100.00 each month to get there and back.  Why so cheap?  Well, it's not because of the 1987 pickup truck that I drive but because I carpool.

We have a 15 passenger van with 14 riders, that we lease from a leasing company (they take care of maintenance, inspections, roadside assistance, insurance, etc).  I drive my old beat up pick-up truck 2.5 miles each direction to the local park&ride (which by the way is free to use - imagine that!).  I get picked up and driven the 42 miles to work.  Since we all work at the same place, we leave the van in the parking lot of work, so there isn't any transfers, etc. 

Every afternoon we all leave at 1630 on our van.  Travel 42 miles and get dropped off at my P&R.  2.5 mile commute back home.

I haven't had to put gas in my truck in three months and I still have about a quarter tank.

Now, we don't always have 14 people on the van, usually it's about 8 since I work from home 2 days a week, other people do too, vacation, etc.  It really works out great.

$100.00 / mo.  taken directly out of my paycheck - pre-tax.  Fantastic!  Better than the $500.00 it would cost me otherwise.

[mikeylikey]

^ There are always alternatives.  Carpooling is a great example. 

I just wish the media would stop feeding the insane "gas is so expensive" mentality.  If you think it is expensive now, when it has only gone up to prices it should have been at in 1986 with inflation, wait till the Presidential election.  It does not matter who gets elected, but speculators and big business will drive the prices of oil up real big.  I would imagine that by the end of summer we will see around $4.30 as a national average.  By the end of next November I could easily see it going well beyond the $4.90-$4.95 price range. 

Like I posted earlier, gasoline is only one product made from oil.  Many of our consumer goods and toys come from oil based products.  My family has been in the plastics business for a few decades now.  We currently make aerospace and defense parts for the major US defense contractors.  We have fourteen parts in the new F-22.  Almost 3 years ago one of the cheapest parts to produce was quoted at $45.90.  Today because of the oil "situation" that part now costs the US Government $89.00.  That is almost DOUBLE the original cost.  You see, plastic is made by combining oil (at the bottom of the refinery tank) with Natural gas.  When oil prices rise, costs go up.  However, because of our economic system, Oil and natural gas is directly linked to each other.  So oil goes up, Natural gas goes up.  It is a two-lose process.

Because only 1/5 of the oil refined in a barrel goes toward plastic, the costs actually are greater for that oil than for the oil that is made into gasoline (which is 2/5).  So everything from milk containers to your Ipod will cost more this year not because of transportation but because of the rising cost of plastics. 

Instead of taking a day not to buy gasoline, how about taking ten minutes and finding out where you can start taking your plastic soda bottles to be recycled.  That is a far better move to keep the cost of consumer goods down. 

[SSgt Rudin]

Instead of taking a day not to buy gasoline, how about taking ten minutes and finding out where you can start taking your plastic soda bottles to be recycled.  That is a far better move to keep the cost of consumer goods down. 

I take mine to the recycle bin in my garage, where they go after that I couldn't tell you. My county has had recycling since, um well, since I have lived here. When we moved in to our house in 1992 the county came and dropped off a recycling trashcan, metal and plastic go in it, paper has to be bundled and on top of the can, once a month we get "paper" instead of using our totes at the supermarket. We save the bags and put all our newspaper in it, when the bag gets full we twine it and throw it on top of the recycle can. All the other paper we shred and bring to a mom & pop pack-n-ship who uses it as packing.

[_]

when I was in DC this past wknd they were doing a thing on the radio... Bike, car & bus from one suburb into the same downtown location (the station). Bike of course was free, but got there way late & needing a shower. Car was about 5 bucks, got the fastest. Bus got there on time, cost about 2bucks, BUT it cost $11 to park at the park-n-ride lot.

I think this may be what you were talking about: The Great Commuter Race (vid)

[flyerthom]

Your school should do this. Not becasue it will make a big dent in petroleum dependency but because it will teach your school (and maybe some head in the sand parents) that we all have a stake in how our government and economy work.

Maybe a small grassroots protest there won't make great waves. But lone people making a small ripple often turn into great waves. Sam Adams (the patriot) comes to mind.

[_]

Maybe a small grassroots protest there won't make great waves. But lone people making a small ripple often turn into great waves. Sam Adams (the patriot) comes to mind.

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."  -Margaret Mead

[Frenchie]

So, I hope you put the IPOD down, not cook your TV dinner, turn the television off, shut the cell phone off, not use any ink pens, unplug the computer, don't listen to any Cd's, don't wear tennis shoes, take off the plastic wrist watch, don't use any deodorant, and basically not eat anything this day as well. 

Does anyone want to make a guess where I am coming from?? 

Simple answere........Plastics.  Each day Americans use more money in plastic products than they do to fill up their cars for an entire week.  Anyone know where plastic comes from??  Natural gas and Oil.  Natural gas and oil are linked commodities.  You need both to make plastic.  So the more plastic we use= more gasoline will cost the next day.

Plastics are a byproduct of the oil industry.  As such the reverse is true.  The more money that's made on refining's byproducts, the cheaper things like gas, diesel, jet fuel, home heating oil, etc. become.