patrick.net

BayArea says

I live and work in the Bay Area and somehow usable public tranportation does not come within 3 miles of either of those two places. I would love to avoid driving if I could and I already bike when weather/time permit.

3 miles is nothing much on a bike! So you do have public transit easily available.

Also, weather always permits in the Bay Area. I ride my to work for 7 years, rain or shine. The climate here is comically mild, even when it's raining.

labdad says

Gas prices are higher because the gas companies can make more money. This is nothing new. It happens every year and some times multiple times a year.

The gas companies control the release of gas. They control when to shutdown plants, when to send gas to other countries, etc. They know when they have to prepare for winter fuel.

The gas companies know that most people are gullable and will believe anything they are told. Fool us once, twice, 20 times, hmmmm....

Nicely put!
Is there a reason why we don't have some kind of a strategic gasoline reserve for California that can be used every time these refineries are out of commission? Supply shocks and price spikes could be reduced if not eliminated by using reserves.

Actually Caltrain is pretty good in the SF Bay Area, and Metra in Chicago (same kind of trains) was also very good for commuting to downtown.

I'd really like to see them completely free to the public though, paid for by property taxes in the areas they serve. This is fair because property values will rise with free trains in the area.

It's also much more cost efficient not to have any ticketing system at all. You don't have to maintain ticket vending machines or pay conductors to check tickets. Just get on the damn train and go where you want. Fares only pay for half of the current funding anyway, the other half being from various federal and state sources.

And if they were free, they'd be totally full all the time and highway congestion would be greatly reduced.

They would turn into mobile homeless shelters.

Raw says

Is there a reason why we don't have some kind of a strategic gasoline reserve for California that can be used every time these refineries are out of commission? Supply shocks and price spikes could be reduced if not eliminated by using reserves.

The free market solves all problems.

Companies naturally stockpile appropriate reserves, right?

BART is pretty good too in the SF Bay area. There is no way you can beat it either time wise or expense wise. The toll on the bridge, gas, stop an go traffic and parking in SF is just horrendous. Once you hit SF, MUNI pretty much takes you anywhere you want.

It's because da bernank sez inflation is low.

Vicente says

Raw says

Is there a reason why we don't have some kind of a strategic gasoline reserve for California that can be used every time these refineries are out of commission? Supply shocks and price spikes could be reduced if not eliminated by using reserves.

The free market solves all problems.

Companies naturally stockpile appropriate reserves, right?

“Eagles are dandified vultures” - Teddy Roosevelt

Free markets when functioning freely are the best options. The oil markets are just an oligopoly.
They have politicians in their pocket.
They unduly influence voters with heavy advertising.
They don't give a damn about pollution.

Dan8267 says

Because demand for gas is mostly inelastic. Until consumers are hit hard enough in the purse, they won't change their behavior. NPR reported that $4.00 / gal gasoline was the tipping point where people in average cost-of-living areas start to change behavior. Perhaps $5.00 /gal in the tipping point in California.

I was back in the midwest (Illinois) a week ago. Pulled into a gas station ($3.75 a gallon) and noticed that virtually every vehicle was a large pickup or an SUV. Where I live in the North Bay the mix is very different more small pickups, compacts and many more hybrids more typical. Whether this difference is caused by higher gas prices or other "cultural" reasons or economic reasons ( more commutes) I don't know but I would guess the average mpg of a vehicle on the road is much higher in the bay area than in the midwest and south.

Public transport in the North Bay is terrible and essentially limited to bus and ferry. There was originally a plan to extend Bart to the North Bay this was abandoned and was a major mistake. It really is great to visit NYC or DC and use public transport to get anywhere.

Just in DFW last weekend. Filled up for $3.37/gal.

Tons of cars/traffic on the road. Man that place is the definition of urban sprawl - and poor engineering.

Zillions of cars, lanes, and it took light years to get anywhere.

joshuatrio says

Tons of cars/traffic on the road. Man that place is the definition of urban sprawl - and poor engineering.

Zillions of cars, lanes, and it took light years to get anywhere.

Actually, it's perfectly engineered to extract forced labor out of us. You're forced to buy a car to have a job, forced to buy gas, forced to burn a lot of gas sitting there, forced to pay construction companies for gigantic unnecessary highway infrastructure via taxes, and on and on.

It's perfect! (If you're in the 0.1% and trying to redistribute money from the middle class up to yourself.)