Sometimes I get a kick out of listening to Americans whine about the price of gasoline. Granted, relative to what we were used to paying, today’s price are ridiculous, and like anyone else, I resent lining Lee Raymond’s wallet. As gas prices here in the Portland area hover around $3.50/gallon, I’ve had to do my own economizing and re-evaluating my driving habits, and I find myself avoiding trips I don’t absolutely have to make. Of course, this does have the advantage of cutting down on wear and tear on my car, which theoretically should help it last longer. I’m also fortunate in that where I live is very centrally located to places I need to access on a regular basis. The fact that I live a scant five miles from work doesn’t hurt, either.
At times like this, though, it’s difficult for me not think of my overseas travels, and the ungodly gasoline prices I ran across in Europe. I can still remember seeing people pushing their Yugos towards the Macedonian border whenever I was leaving Kosovo. Given that it could take hours upon hours for a Kosovar to clear the Serb border crossing, drivers had no choice. With gasoline at $10/gallon (no joke) on the black market due to the UN embargo against Serbia, these folks- who were desperately poor under the best of cirsumstances- simply couldn’t afford to allow their engines to idle.
Travel around Europe, and you’ll find that gasoline is significantly more expensive that it is here in the US- though the gap seems to be narrowing. We’re still very fortunate in that we pay some of the lowest gasoline prices in the world. Yes, I don’t want to pay $4/gallon any more than the rest of y’all, but a little perspective might be nice. We still have it pretty damn good, all things considered- despite recent history. What seems like not so very long ago, I was paying $.88/gallon in Houston. Driving an F-150 with an auxiliary tank was no big deal, because even if both tanks were bone dry, I could fill up for less than $40. As much as I miss that truck sometimes, I’m glad I replaced it with something significantly more fuel-efficient.
Perhaps that’s the moral of this story. We can all make a difference. Whether we reduce our unnecessary trips by combining errands, buy more fuel-efficient vehicles, or rely more heavily on public transportation, there’s something to be said for disincentivizing gratuitous automobile travel. Perhaps it’s time we actually began thinking about what we’re doing and how we’re doing it- before we have to take out a second mortgage in order to fill our gas tank. I realize that we Americans don’t deal well with limitations, but it might just be time for us to wake up and smell the cat litter…while we still can.
