Change in your driving habits?

[ostrich]

Colleen mentioned this in another thread, and I was curious. How many of you have changed your driving habits because of the high gas prices? Do you now take public transportation/bike/walk/etc? Are you going to/did you buy a more fuel efficient car? Is it effecting other aspects of your life? Bonus points for posting the current gas prices in your area.

We just arrived at $4 last week. It's gone down a little bit since then, but it's still hovering pretty close to $4.

I've tried taking the scooter as often as I can. 65mpg rules! If I need to take the car I make as few trips as possible. We've gone without things like certain groceries for awhile until we can make a big enough list to warrant the trip.

DH isn't so lucky. Right now he's transporting kids to/from family visits, so the majority of his day is spent driving. He fills up his 30mpg car 2-3 times per week. He gets 30 cents per mile from the company and he can write off those miles on our taxes, but it's still a big hit to his mileage and wallet.
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Ostrich :>--O==={

Time falls away, but these small hours
These little wonders still remain

[celiacmaine-iac]

I drive a big 4WD GMC pickup. Last time I filled up it cost me $82. Thankfully I get 20 mpg with it, which is pretty good for a full size 4WD. I have definitely changed my driving habits. I try to go out just one day a week, and do all my errands on that day. I live in the boondocks, so public transport, bikes, walking just aren't options.

Gas prices around here are hovering at about $4 give or take a few cents.
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Steph

[The Edifying Conscience]

FWIW gas here is $4.19 per gallon. Can anyone beat that? If so, my apologies!

For several years I've planned ahead to minimize gas consumption in the name of environmental concerns. So, I'm not needing to make big changes in my driving habits and to be honest there aren't big changes that I can make. A year or so ago I started hypermiling and that has increased my gas mileage.

I have however cancelled a couple of trips to the city and rescheduled them when I had other things going on downtown. I'm also hitting up TJs and WF when I'm in the city instead of making a special trip.

When I decided to get a new car I got one with better gas mileage instead of a nicer car with more power. to be honest though, I probably would have done that anyway. If I had the space and wasn't so lazy, I would buy an old, diesel Mercedes and run it on biodiesel.

[Mom2BoyzOnly]

Back in January, we were planning on taking a summer vacation back to Florida or Myrtle Beach. Haven't been since 2006. We travel by motorhome and camp, so after figuring what gas was gonna cost us, the vacation was out! We'll be spending time at local campgrounds within the state this year. Don't know if things will ever get much better.
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Robin
Diagnosed approx 13 yrs ago
Seriously GF past 4 yrs

[Kerri]

Dean & I used to go for a long drive each weekend. this has seeming ceased for the time being (not only due to furel prices though)

At present Fuel is around AU$1.69 /Litre

So Around US$1.53 / litre or US$5.78/ Gallon

So when we take your US$4.00/ Gallon and convert it to litres US$1.06/Litre is around AU$1.11/ Litre... If only it was that price again. I don't think it has been that cheap in over a year.

[jeant]

Gas here is $3.99 a gallon at the "cheap" places, around $4.06 at other places. A little over a year ago, I bought a Honda Fit. I love it. It's not a hybrid but it is a small car, so it gets 32-35 mpg around town and up to 40 mpg on the highways. Like The Edifying Conscience, I have had environmental concerns for a long time so I have not had to make drastic changes to my lifestyle. I do try to combine errands more now, but that's about it.

Actually, the cost of heating oil is a bigger concern to me now since I live in New England. I am going shopping for a wood pellet stove sometime this week or next to see if that can cut down on oil consumption (I saw a sign yesterday for $4.44 a gallon heating oil). I also am looking into a solar hot water heater.

[luvscowznh]

[ostrich]

Forgot to mention....besides our upcoming CA trip, we're not going on vacation again until everything (stupid airline rules, gas prices, etc) calms down. Which is really sad because I'd love to visit more of his relatives.
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Ostrich :>--O==={

Time falls away, but these small hours
These little wonders still remain

[celiacmaine-iac]

I hear you about the heating oil Jean and Cowz. We heat our house and water with K1 and my DH saw a posted price of $4.85 for that. We supplement with wood, and will probably use coal in my old Atlantic kitchen range this year.

[luvscowznh]

[cruelshoes]

I saw gas here for $4.29/gallon yesterday. Diesel is $4.99. I am going to start riding the bus to work on Monday 6/16 when the kids are out of school. I live 15 miles away from work. It will take 1.5 hours each way, but I think I could use some down time to knit or read or sleep.

We have always combined errands, but are now doing it even moreso. We do almost no discretionary driving anymore. We really think hard before making trips to see family that are a bit of a drive from us. How much do we really like these people???

I am looking at buying a bicycle. The grocery store near my house is close enough to bike to, but just far away for it to be an inconvenience to do so. But maybe I need to work harder at carving out time to ride a bike. I don't do any running out to the store for only a thing or two anymore. I always try to stop by the store if I need to while I am out doing somehting else.
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-Colleen

Where are we going, and what am I doing in this handcart?

[Torrey]

Yes, because I am so close to NYC (just across the bridge, about 20-30 minutes away), *a lot* more people have been bicycling to their jobs in the city. It's not the safest group of roads to traverse, but if you get the hang of shortcuts and whatnot, I am sure it is MUCH cheaper! There was actually an article in the paper last week about the fact that more and more people are deciding to cycle to work.

I "downsized" to a smaller car last summer...I used to have a larger SUV and have had my RAV4 for almost a year now. I absolutely love it, and truth be told, the gas mileage is pretty good for a "smaller" SUV. Plus, I try to take mass transit as much as possible (ie, trains into NYC and walking to my downtown area).

And I have to agree, the heating bills are *much* worse (although I don't have oil heat)! I get cold extremely easily, but over the past winter, I have learned to layer, layer, layer to avoid turning up the thermostat too much.
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~Torrey

August 24, 1975
GF BD July 12, 2004

[ostrich]

At least you guys can take the bus. Mass transit is a joke here. Most of my coworkers bike to work in nice weather. It's usually a 12-15 mile ride, sometimes longer.

We don't use heating oil either. I went Torrey's route and tried to bundle up this winter. It's the first winter I've had to use a heating blanket at night.

I had totally forgotten about geothermal heating! Do you have to get permission from the city to do something like that? A few people around here tried the "solar panels on the roof" thing. But the technology wasn't up to snuff, so the panels never paid for themselves.
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Ostrich :>--O==={

Time falls away, but these small hours
These little wonders still remain

[Kathie]

Regular gas around 3.91, diesel 4.71

We bought a diesel Jetta in 06, right before they made the change for the new super low sulfur fuel. We get 34-36 in town. We are supposed to get close to 50 on the road but have never taken a real road trip. The best we've gotten so far is around 38.

We make our own fuel for our 3 diesel service trucks out of used vegetable oil and use it at a ratio or 10 gal diesel to 15 gal vegie fuel. The Jetta is supposed to be able to run on this mix also but we don't want to do that while its still in warranty. We have drastically cut back on trips to the store and around with our gas truck (14mpg) and use the Jetta for family trips. We have 4 motorcycles, 35 mpg, 45 mpg, 49 mpg and 85 mpg. So the one son and my husband use them as much as possible. We were taking short motorcycle trips in the evenings but have stopped doing that.

We are scheduled to leave for KY (900 miles) on Friday, we will be using one of the vegie trucks and pulling a trailer. We will buy a washer and dryer this trip for the home so that we can cut back on the amount of stuff we have to haul back and forth in order to make more economical trips in the future.

We heat the KY home with wood, presently we use a generator for electricity when we are there. that could get a little expensive this trip, fortunately it is summer so we won't have to run it much for lights.

My brother in Maine bought one of those wood pellet stoves this past winter to heat their home because they couldn't afford fuel. They have been really happy with that.
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CD by Biopsy 3/25/88

[ShellyB]

Here in England diesel is is around £1.30 a litre and petrol around £1.15 a litre
That's around $2.60 and $2.30 a litre - around £6 ($12) a gallon and rising. I hear countless people here at home saying they can't afford long trips any more, and if it hits £7 a gallon .......
I have to have my own car for work (local council) yet our rebate fuel rates are way out of date. Public transport.... well it leaves a lot to be desired.
Wish I could get on my bike instead but just now DH and I are trying to get by with one car between us - not easy

ShellyB