rising gas prices? shut the hell up.

Riding shotgun into town today, I noticed a normal amount of "rush hour" (I hesitate using this word in Madison, WI - a city of 543,000, sorry) traffic for a morning commute from the West side. I also noticed the number of sport utility vehicles and trucks - 47; along with the number of cars - 70+ along with four Madison Metro busses. Among all of these vehicles minus the buses, there were only two (cars, to be specific) that had more than one passenger in them - this includes the car that my girlfriend and I were occupying. So one other car, with two people - which means 98% of the vehicles within eyesight transported only the driver. Pretty awesome, right?


How about this - let's say the average passenger capacity (including the driver) per vehicle is five - a happy medium between 2-4 passenger compact cars/trucks and 6-8 passenger s.u.v.s and etc. This means the vehicles on the road this morning (minus the buses) had approximately 474 open seats, unused and unoccupied. Three of those seats were attributed to the vehicle my girlfriend and I occupied - which is a Prius, which means we're both very environmentally conscious, enjoy eating granola, and put weed in our farm fresh salads which is followed by a second course of organic vegetarian burritos, Cheetos, and for the sake of rhyming, Doritos.


474 open seats. Wild. I could relate this number to filling an auditorium or small sports arena, but I won't. Instead, we can think of the number of open seats to the number of occupants in a similar fashion to the total number of Facebook friends you have to those friends you actually speak with or see on a daily basis. HAZZZA!


Anyway, I am assuming those "solo" drivers aren't complaining about high gas prices - they better not. Nobody except business owners and workers whose operation/occupation rely on transporting goods in large quantities or services should be complaining (e.g. airline companies, farmers. the post office...).


Some of us are too quick to complain before considering a change in lifestyle - the options are obvious and most of us know about them, but still take the car to work, church, the gym (ha!), or even to go on bike rides (which is totally uncalled for unless you are riding with adolescents who shouldn't ride in
traffic).


I saw in the local news the other night (on at 4pm, 5pm, 6pm, 9pm, and 10pm) that Bullworth Gillette Kronkite (not his actual name) spends $58 to fill up his s.u.v. and does so THREE TIME A WEEK! Now for a lame comparison (but awesome at the same time, you'll see): with that much saved, you could by this* in just over 4 months! It's awesome because it would take 6 months if you were paying retail.

This Newsweek article by Keith Naughton is quite good and discusses this subject quite squarely. Here is another article by the same author that has somewhat inspired this post. I never really try to read more than I need to, so in case you don't click on them, here's the good stuff:

The fact is, as much as we gripe about gas prices, we're pumping just as much of the precious liquid into our tanks as ever. Every day in America we burn through 391 million gallons of motor fuel. That burn rate is the same as last year, when gas prices were 70 cents per gallon lower. And gas consumption is up 18 percent from a decade ago. The federal Energy Information Administration just predicted we would finally begin to curb our consumption this year for the first time since 1991—by an underwhelming 0.3 percent.

I am not posting this to show you all that I am "green" or going to "enviro heaven" - which I assume is similar to having your remains mulched with fertilizer and humus (which I hear is great for retaining moisture for your potted plants) after being donated to "science," of course. I simply enjoy commuting with my bike and only need my car about once a week - which is awesome since I only need an oil change about once a year and not awesome because my battery is always low due to the lack of use/charge.


So, ride a bike, take the bus, ask a few of those Facebook friends you've made through work if they want to carpool (make sure to poke them if they say yes!). If you ever hear me complaining about gas prices to you, it will be because I am setting up an exit from our meeting and not wasting the time to set you straight - also notice how I won't make much eye contact, promise to call you or meet up soon, and roll my eyes once I turn away from you.








*If any of you want to communicate something to me, but are having a hard time coming up with something to say - you can effectively say "Good work, Ed" with a seal or statement of authenticity and this item. Thanks, in advance!