April 20, 2007
How to stretch gas dollars.
Tags: driving, transportationIf you’re like 146 percent of drivers in the United States, you probably belong to AAA and you probably get their magazine, Via. I’ve been a AAA Magazine reader since I was old enough to read because, even though the writing is usually mediocre, it was a good way to dream about places I’d never seen. When I became a AAA member myself, I became a part of the proud eight percent of members (not an exaggeration) who support raising gas taxes. But I digress.
The May/June issue has a feature called “How to Stretch your Gas Dollars.” I’ll summarize for you: don’t drive like a maniac, tune up your car, shut off when you idle (I hate this one), clean your trunk, and don’t use the Ronco patented gas genie. You know what’s missing, don’t you?
Of course you do. I wouldn’t be writing about this list if it weren’t missing.
DRIVE LESS.
I’m sorry for shouting, but even a magazine dedicated to driving should understand that the single best way to stretch gas dollars is not to drive around searching for gas that is five cents per gallon cheaper. It is about not driving at all. People like me will continue to drive for pleasure because that’s the way we were raised. But when I get to where I’m going, you can bet I’ll walk as much as I can. There’s no shame in that, and AAA should start taking that angle when they try to tell people how to save money on gas.
Here’s the best part: if Americans seriously tried to drive less, we’d probably see gas prices fall a little. It’s basic supply and demand.
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It’s hard to drive less if you live in a place like Roseville. That list could expand to include things like 1) write a letter to your city council member to request better integrated transit systems, 2) complain to your local regional transit authority about their crappy on-time percentage 3) vote for politicians that support urban design that encourages walking 4) apply for a Caltrans Safe Routes to Schools grant to improve your neighborhood access to local schools.
I could go on forever. But I’ll end with this:
May is Bike Commute Month!
April 21, 2007 @ 9:46 am
And…combine errands and plan your route in advance. Carpool when going out with friends. Ask about working from home a day or two a week. And yes, ride your bike to work. My ten-year-old car has 50k miles on it and I’m proud of that!
April 23, 2007 @ 3:17 am
When it comes to Roseville, it might take an act of God to get them to go along with “integrated transit systems”–the simplest of which would be to extend Sacramento light rail to the Placer County line. Roseville is fine with this, as long as they don’t have to spend a cent or lift a finger to do it. Guess what finger Sacramento County lifted in response?
Maybe someone should convince Roseville that if they spent money to bring light rail to Roseville, it would be even easier to dump their homeless on the train and ship ‘em to Sacramento…
Another way to save money on commute gas when you live in Roseville is to get a job in Roseville.
April 23, 2007 @ 9:03 am
As a former Sacramento-to-Roseville reverse-commuter, I am quite familiar with Roseville’s refusal to play along. And yet I swear I just saw an article in a local government publication about how they’re all “smart growth” about the housing. However, I couldn’t even get from my office to the mall via bus. And I tried to ride my bike to work when I did live there, but the bike lane crossed a freeway exit.
April 23, 2007 @ 2:27 pm
Our paterns of suburban sprawl simply do not support mass transit. There is no economical way to design bus routes and light rail to cover hundreds of square miles of disconnected development. Urban villages are where it is at. Move to West Sac!!
April 24, 2007 @ 9:55 pm
Urban villages are a return to an older mode of city construction: before cars were universal and streetcars & interurbans were the transportation of choice for the middle class, suburban developments were located radially along railroad lines, like spokes from a wheel. This meant that land was less developed, and cheaper, in the spaces in between the transit system’s “spokes.” One of the main advantages of non-fixed-path transit like automobiles is that they make it practical to live in those spaces between transit corridors. The result is our current amorphous, sparsely populated suburbscapes.
It isn’t really practical to simply abandon the suburbs, and building interurban-model mass transit (like light rail lines) is a way to ease some of the transit burden on freeways. Fixed-rail lines will also spur more satellite “urban villages” that are more dense than the surrounding suburbs. There are plans for just this sort of village on some of the underutilized “park & ride” lots on existing light rail corridors.
April 25, 2007 @ 1:07 pm
If you can’t drive less, SLOW DOWN. I’ve been screaming about that for years.
People in the Sacramento area drive way too fast. It’s like there’s some invisible line just east of Vallejo that sets off a trigger in a lot of people’s brains and they suddenly think they are trying out outrun Sheriffs Rosco P. Coltrane or Buford T. Justice.
April 25, 2007 @ 8:09 pm
SFchick: We’re trying to deliberately irritate Bay Areans so they’ll stay on their side of the bridge. We realize that driving over 30 MPH on the freeway in the Bay Area is generally impossible, so many Bay Area residents may not be used to driving the speed limit, or may not even realize that their vehicles are capable of traveling at 65 miles per hour. We are simply attempting to teach by example.
Besides, we have to make it over the county line in time to foil Boss Hogg’s plan to destroy the county rodeo arena!
April 26, 2007 @ 10:10 am