As much as my husband complains about the size of my bug, he has never complained about its gas milage, although, truth be told my Ford Focus actually got more to the gallon but didn't have all of the neat features (like heated leather seats)that my bug has. He was seriously pushing for us to get a mini van or a four door truck for himself until lately. Now it looks like we will be getting a Subaru Impreza all wheel drive car for him. Fine with me. I have never liked trucks and all you see skidding all over the place are, TRUCKS! I know some of them have to have four wheel drive but it is still pretty amazing to see how many people either drive without engaging 4 wheel drive or just don't have it on their trucks here. Sure you see cars skidding around too but but mostly trucks. Seriously. I don't know how many times this winter we, or even me by myself, were driving along in our little bug (without snow tires mind you) in the snow and ice doing just fine, only to see in another lane, or on the other side of the road, some big macho truck skidding all over the place. I always think, "gee buddy, you sure look butch in your big truck now, hung up on that median." Okay not to make all truck drivers mad at me, I know there are plenty of responsible truck drivers out there but I wish there were more, especially in Anchorage!
Gas Buddy;
http://www.gasbuddy.com/
a site to help you find out how much gas is in your area as well as the rest of the us.
Find lowest gas prices near you with mapquest;
http://gasprices.mapquest.com/?cid=google&sem=1&ncid=MPQMAP00170000000028
Gas prices in LA;
http://www.losangelesgasprices.com/Forum_MSG.aspx?master=1&category=1110&topic=200965&page_no=1&FAV=N
Gas prices $4 a gallon by summer?
Lehigh Valley price record broken Friday, but we're still a little below national average.
By Sam Kennedy | Of The Morning Call
March 15, 2008
Suddenly, the idea of $4-a-gallon gas doesn't seem so far-fetched.
It was the subject of a report released this week by the federal government. Then, on Friday, the price of Lehigh Valley gas hit a new high, breaking a record set during the fuel shortage that followed Hurricane Katrina.
The average price of regular unleaded gas in the region is about $3.25, according to a survey by AAA, two pennies more than the previous high on Sept. 7, 2005.
''It kills me,'' John Cavanagh said as he pumped gas into his pickup at the Wawa station on Union Boulevard in Allentown. The tally came to $74.
And Cavanagh, a Bethlehem resident whose disc jockey/karaoke business frequently requires him to drive to out-of-state customers, said he has to fill up three times a week.
''My profit margin has shrunk about 25 percent since last year,'' he said.
Nationwide, the average price is $3.28 a gallon, up 30 cents in just a month and 73 cents higher than a year ago.
Prices vary from state to state depending on a number of factors, such as taxes and proximity to refineries and pipelines. The Lehigh Valley -- favorably situated near the end of the 5,550-mile Colonial Pipeline, which stretches from Houston to Linden, N.J. -- typically enjoys prices slightly below the national average.
It was the disruption of Colonial Pipeline flow that caused the price of gas in this region to spike so high after Hurricane Katrina struck in August 2005.
But what's driving the price today -- a worldwide run-up in crude oil, the primary ingredient of gasoline -- is not so easy to fix. The per-barrel price of crude on the New York Mercantile Exchange this week briefly passed $110 for the first time.
Surveys have suggested that people might start traveling less or taking other money-saving measures, such as carpooling, when the price of gas hits $3.50, said Theresa Podguski, spokeswoman for AAA East Penn.
So far, she said, AAA hasn't detected significant change in people's traveling habits, though higher fuel costs are surely taking a bite out of their discretionary income.
''They may choose not to do other things, such as eating out,'' Podguski said.
Kamran Afshar, a Bethlehem economist, agreed that people tend to cut back on discretionary expenses first. But he said more drastic measures might not be too far off.
''As unusual as it is in the Lehigh Valley, people may even attempt to use public transportation,'' he said.
It wasn't so long ago that $2-a-gallon gasoline seemed shockingly expensive. The price of Lehigh Valley gas hit the $2 mark in October 2004.
After briefly going into $3 territory after Hurricane Katrina, the price dropped and didn't hit $3 again until May 2007.
Talk of yet another painful milestone was fueled this week by a U.S. Energy Information Administration report titled ''$4 Per Gallon?''
The report reiterated the administration's earlier prediction that the average price of gas nationally will peak at about $3.50 a gallon. But it went on to note that there could be exceptions, particularly in certain regions prone to high gas prices, where the $4 barrier will be broken.
Indeed, the Hawaiian island of Maui is already on the verge of becoming the first such place. The average price in Wailuku reached $3.93 on Thursday, the highest price in AAA's Daily Fuel Gauge Report.
At several stations on the island, it was a penny shy of $4. In the remote coastal town of Hana, it was about $4.40 a gallon.
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