Posts about Gas Prices

Can't change gas prices: Both political parties want to lower gas prices, but take ineffective steps to try to do it. Democrats go after speculators, while Republicans want to soften clean air regulation. (Streetsblog) (Comment)

We've drunk our milkshake: The cheap oil that fueled low gas prices and car-oriented suburban sprawl is almost gone. While lots of oil remains, it is difficult, expensive, and environmentally hazardous to drill and refine. (Salon) (Comment)

VRE down, MARC up: After the transit benefit dropped from $230 to $125, VRE ridership went slightly down, while MARC's went up. The increase in gas prices could be counteracting the lower transit benefit. (Examiner) (Comment)

Drivers are the real socialists?: Andrew Sullivan points out a few posts exploring subsidy to motorists. In China, a transit trip is cheaper than a liter of gasoline; in the US it's the reverse. (The Daily Dish, Steve S) (Comment)

We don't spend a lot on gas: Washington residents spend the 3rd least on gas out of 50 cities Mint.com analyzed, behind only New York and Brooklyn. People in San Jose, CA spend the most, combining high gas prices and prolific driving. (Bossi) (Comment)

So much for conservation: To lower gas prices, the Obama Administration decided to release 30 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserves. We might as well assume that a carbon tax or a gas tax increase is dead. (AP) (Comment)

Why are gas prices high?: Are high gas prices in DC a result of market manipulation or is it just market forces? If the DC Council forces Joe Mamo to sell his stations, would it lower gas prices? (City Paper) (Comment)

Roads

What's the true cost of gas?

by Matt Johnson • June 19, 2011 1:31 pm

People have been complaining about high gas prices lately, but in reality, Americans are getting quite a bargain. What's the true price of gas?

This video from the Center for Investigative Reporting attempts to answer the question.

The true effect of overly low cost of gasoline in this country over the past several decades has been to encourage the kind of development where cars are the only way to get around. And that means we need to buy a lot of gas, which makes us sensitive to its retail price.

31 comments

Tags: gas prices, video

History

How far has bicycling come since 1979?

by David Alpert • June 17, 2011 1:31 pm

The year was 1979. The Iranian Revolution led to oil shortages and long lines at the pump. Maryland Governor Harry Hughes proposed rationing gas. Levittown drivers rioted when gas prices rose to a whopping $1 a gallon. And large numbers of people tried bicycling to work.

Line at a Maryland gas station. Image from the Library of Congress via Wikimedia.

Peter Harnik wrote an op-ed in the June 23, 1979 Washington Post about the sudden rise in bicycling:

On Wednesday night, there was another unearthly sound, the noise of thousands of people rummaging through their basements, oiling chains, dusting gearshifts, inflating tires, tightening spokes, looking for locks.
And, like the emergence of some giant strain of locusts, the bikes appeared on Thursday—Fujis replacing Datsuns, Gitanes replacing Citroens, Raleighs replacing Triumphs, and Sears and Schwinns replacing Fords and Chevys. ...
June 14th was the day Washington had its first glimpse of the future—and everyone not stuck in a car seemed to be smiling.

Harnik suggested five specific projects that would make cycling safer and more enjoyable in Washington:

A bike lane, the width of one full car lane, on 15th Street, NW from Florida Avenue to I Street.
Closing the service lanes on K Street except to bicycles and delivery trucks, like European bike boulevards.
A bike lane on Pennsylvania Avenue from Georgetown to the Sousa Bridge.
Close Beach Drive in Rock Creek Park and the Arboretum to motor vehicles on Sundays.
Close the George Washington Parkway and the Baltimore-Washington Parkway for two days a year.

How are we doing with those? The 15th Street bike lane is a hugely successful reality, and now goes farther than Harnik proposed, all the way down to Pennsylvania Avenue where it connects to the Pennsylvania Avenue lane.

The Pennsylvania Avenue lane only goes from the White House to the Capitol, plus the part always closed to traffic and usually open to bikes past the White House itself.

K Street remains a heavily car-centric road. The K Street Transitway plan would improve that, but not really for cyclists. Instead, DDOT is proposing cycle tracks on L and M Streets, but those projects haven't moved forward since Gabe Klein took his cycle track enthusiasm to Chicago.

Beach Drive does close to motor vehicles on Sundays. The Arboretum does not. The GW Parkway does become a bike-only road once a year, for Bike DC; the BW Parkway does not.

In summary, DC went above and beyond on one and partway on three. Harnik wrote when he sent along the article, "Not bad, until you realize it's been 32 years!"

11 comments

Tags: 15th Street bike lane, bicycling, bike lanes, BW Parkway, gas prices, GW Parkway, history, K Street, National Arboretum, Pennsylvania Avenue bike lanes, Rock Creek

Gas dependence varies nationally: Virginians annually spend 4.45% ($1,994) of their incomes on gas compared to 3.97% ($1,947) for Marylanders. In contrast, Mississippians spend 7.23%, or $2,255 annually. (NRDC) (Comment)

Hand wringing over gas prices: In 2008 the DC council lifted a ban on gas resellers also owning gas stations believing it would lower gas prices. Now they want to restore it, believing it will lower gas prices. (Post) ... How much transit could we pay for with all the money and time spent investigating gas companies? (Examiner, LA Times) (Comment)

Local officials partly to blame: The county executive of suburban Oakland County, MI, admits, "I love sprawl. I need it. I promote it. Oakland County can't get enough of it." Michigan blog m-bike blames such local officials for fostering the car dependence that makes a spike in gas prices painful for their residents. (m-bike via Streetsblog) (Comment)

CaBi keeps growing: The mild weather and high gas prices are playing favorably for Capital Bikeshare, pushing usage up near 5,000 trips per day and garnering a total of 22,000 daily users and 11,000 annual members. (WJLA) (Comment)

Struggling with higher gas prices: While higher gas prices are usually good for transit ridership, they ~~aren't~~ are straining local governments who budgeted for lower fuel prices. (Examiner) ... The Maryland legislature easily passed a hike in the alcohol tax, but legislators were unwilling to raise the gas tax as pump prices climb. (WAMU) (Comment)

Transit demand will rise with gas prices: APTA estimates between 600 million and 1.5 billion new transit trips next year, depending how high gas prices rise. Of course, APTA's not exactly an unbiased party, but we saw the same trend in 2008. (WTOP) (Comment)

Gas stations will gradually turn into condos: A profile on DC's biggest gas station owner, Joe Mamo, ends by noting that some operators worry he'll convert many stations to condos; Mamo is aware that rising real estate costs, rising gas prices, and alternative fuels will push land toward other uses in the long run. (City Paper) (Comment)

And...: Sekou Biddle affirmed his support for streetcars at a Happy Hour last week on H Street. (Streetcars 4 DC) ... Political unrest in the Middle East may soon make your daily drive a little more expensive. (WTOP) ... Portlandia has a send-up of the Oregon city's more militant bike riders. Will cyclists have a sense of humor about it? (My Damn Channel) (Comment)

Gas demand in decline: A group of economic experts are predicting that America's petroleum consumption will not rebound after the recession, saying the last four years of decline show strong signs that the country's oil use peaked for good in 2006. (Post) (Comment)

And...: VDOT has approved $1.1 billion in new road construction and maintenance projects for next year. (Dr. Gridlock) ... The opening of the first section of the ICC will be pushed back again to early 2011 for weather reasons, despite a remarkably mild fall. (WTOP) ... Washington area gas prices are likely to reach record highs this year. The price in DC already tops $3. (WTOP) (Comment)

Pinching pennies: Based on the current average national gas price, which AAA reports to be $2.78 per gallon on 8/10/10, taking public transit and living without a car will save a DC resident, on average, $9,115 annually and $760 per month. (APTA, Steve G.) (Comment)

The graph that moves backward: The NYT plots VMT against gas prices from 1956 to today. Unlike most graphs that space points in time evenly across an axis, this graph starts to "move backward" in recent years as VMT has declined. (Comment)

Watch for falling gas: AAA predicts that gas prices will continue to fall. There are a few places in the South that are already experiencing prices under $2 a gallon. Due to the larger economic situation, VMT will probably not rise, however. (Post, Cavan) (Comment)

Amtrak ridership off highs: Lower gas prices meant lower Amtrak ridership nationwide from record highs last summer. Northeast Corridor ridership is off 6.5%, and the Acela Express dropped 12%. (Post, Gavin Baker) (Comment)

Cheap gas = obesity: Some clever economists used data on various gas taxes between states to demonstrate the effect of gas prices on public health. Each $1 of cost for a gallon of gas reduces the obesity rate by a whopping 10%. One of the best things we could do to save American households money would be to charge more for gas. (Matthew Yglesias) (Comment)

What do futures traders know about oil?: Many experts are attributing the recent surge in oil prices to speculation. However, speculators only bid higher prices on futures if they think there's a reason to. Do they know something about the fundamental supply and demand that we don't? (Post, Cavan) (Comment)

Transit not part of Post's analysis: The Post writes that close-in house prices have held up better than exurbs because "there was a higher proportion of recent sales in those fast-growing suburbs, leaving them more exposed to the subprime mortgages." The article makes absolutely no mention of transit, gas prices, or the resurgent popularity of urban living. (Comment)

Gas prices going up: Gas prices always rise around Memorial Day, but they're going up a lot faster than usual. WJLA has some quotes from drivers who are cutting back on driving or bought more fuel-efficient cars. (Comment)

Why people are driving less: In what he described as possibly the first time a regression ever appeared in Esquire, FiveThirtyEight's Nate Silver examines the decline in driving despite lower gas prices. The conclusion: most of it is probably a delayed reaction to last year's price spike, but some Americans are reexamining their auto dependence. Plus, since many people say they'll only buy American, the bankruptcy of U.S. automakers may "reduce some of the patriotic associations with the activity of driving." (Esquire via T4America, Max D) (Comment)

Cheaper gas changing little: Some people started driving less when gas prices rose, and still drive less. Others didn't drive less and still don't. (WTOP) (Comment)

Development

The era of big commute is over

by David Alpert • August 5, 2008 1:25 pm

The "end of the exurbs" trend narrative story has hit the Washington Post front page, with a very good article by Eric ("War on Drivers") Weiss. As we well know, families just aren't moving out to the fringe of the metropolitan area for cheap housing yet grueling commutes; "the days of building giant houses on former soybean fields on the outer fringes of metropolitan areas are over."

Denser development in Fairfax. Photo by magandafille on Flickr.

Weiss not only identifies the trend but delves into the causes, and gets them right:

Since the end of World War II, government policy has funded and encouraged the suburban lifestyle, subsidizing highways while starving mass transit... Federal spending is about 4 to 1 in favor of highways over transit. Today, more than 99 percent of the trips taken by U.S. residents are in cars or some other non-transit vehicle, largely as a result of decades of such unbalanced spending.

And Fairfax, at least, is ready to change at places like Tysons:

"We need to change the patterns of development," said Gerald E. Connolly (D), chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors. "We have to move to a new transit-oriented development paradigm and concentrate development and avoid the sprawl that we've allowed in the past and undo some of the environmental damage."
He pointed to nearby Arlington County and its Rosslyn-Ballston corridor, alive with pedestrians and dense housing development. "We actually know it works," Connolly said.

Fortunately for the region, Connolly is very likely going to be Northern Virginia's next new Congressman, replacing retiring Republican Tom Davis. While he championed the Dulles Corridor Metrorail project, Davis also blocked TOD around Vienna for political reasons.

Others quoted in the article think suburbs will remain largely the same, but with jobs moving closer to the people. Ryan Avent agrees, but points out that jobs can only get so much closer when people live far apart.

Suburbs are partly a product of some people's desire for big houses and yards, and partly a product of government spending priorities making sprawl more economically attractive than walkable neighborhoods. High gas prices don't mean the end of suburbs, but they have ended the bias in their favor. The pendulum is already swinging back. The only question is how far.

(Thanks to Andrew and Ken who both sent me the article.)

73 comments

Tags: development, Fairfax, gas prices, Gerry Connolly, Silver Line, sprawl, Tom Davis, Virginia, windshield perspective

Roads

Lunch links: National trends edition

by David Alpert • July 28, 2008 12:09 pm

Tom the Dancing Bug.

Trend story of the moment: whites moving into the city: First it was "gas prices so high some people are giving up driving," followed by "record transit ridership in [insert city here]." Now, a pair of articles in The Wall Street Journal and The New Republic may represent the next media narrative. Both discuss the trend of whites moving to the city and its effects, whether you call it "gentrification" or "demographic inversion". Thanks to tipsters Tim and Ben T.

It's simple economics: Tom the Dancing Bug's latest comic shows how our energy problems are just simple economics. Or not. Tip: mfs.

Post discusses bike safety: Washington Post writer Moira McLaughlin, who rides her bike to work, talks about bicycle safety, the rapidly rising demand for bicycles and bike commuting, and the transgressions of both drivers and cyclists. There's a live chat with Eric Gilliland that started at noon.

Try doing that at Dupont or Woodley Park: Some people resorted to running up the down escalator at Foggy Bottom this morning after two broken escalators caused a massive backlog of people waiting to walk up. Thanks to Ben S. for the tip.

2 comments

Tags: bicycling, bike safety, gas prices, gentrification, humor, links, WMATA

Roads

Best places to live... if gas were still $1.50

by David Alpert • July 16, 2008 7:55 am

Money has one of those silly rankings of the best places to live in America. Columbia, Maryland is #8; Hunter Mill, Sully, and Burke, Virginia #19, 25, and 31 respectively; Gaithersburg #29, Reston #37, and Rockville #66.

What do they all have in common? These are mostly low-density suburban places a long drive from the central employment areas. The rankings take into account housing prices (which helps Gaithersburg top Rockville) but not fuel costs, even though transportation costs are now higher than housing costs for many auto-dependent suburbs. At least Gaithersburg and Burke have commuter rail; not so for the higher-ranking "best places".