Gas does NOT cost too much

---by Micheal

It does for me, but apparently not for the vast majority of folks. Oh sure, they gripe and complain as though they'd been mugged, but actions speak much louder than words. By the actions of drivers I see, gas still doesn't cost too much.

For example, while in the Walmart parking lot, a young mother sat in her minivan-SUV-thing idling for almost 20 minutes. I think she was going through flyers or something. Eventually, she shut off her engine and went in to shop. It was a drizzly day. No need for A/C. She just liked having her engine running, I guess.

For another example, I was in the cell phone lot at Manchester Airport, waiting to pick up my mother-in-law. When I got there, several cars already there awhile, sat idling. I shut mine off for the 10 minutes I was there. The others were still idling when I left. Obviously, gas does not cost too much for those people.

For a bigger example, I commute daily to Boston in a van-pool. We're having trouble getting enough riders to keep it viable. Yet, every day, I-93 is choked with thousands of cars, each with a single occupant. When we get the occasional enquiry, they decline to van-pool because our departure time is a half hour after when they want to leave. So, they drive in. It boggles the mind. All that wasted time behind the wheel, and hundreds of dollars in gas -- all for a half hour? What are they doing with those gold-plated half hours? It must be very VERY important. (though I suspect not).

Clearly, for all those people happily driving alone in to Boston every day, gas is not too expensive. Even at $4.00 a gallon, that precious half hour is worth it.

Gas might not be too expensive for them, but it is for me. I've been engaged in "Hypermiling" (hyper-mile-ing) for about a year now. (more on that in a later post), but I'm still astounded how much people's personal preferences win out over economy. Since people are too fussy to change their driving habits, One can only conclude that gas really is NOT too expensive.