by Sage Doak

Created on: May 27, 2008

We live in a world driven by gas. Some things will not change no matter what the price of fuel, yet many will. Many jobs depend on fuel to move products, services and people. These jobs will continue to need fuel and may not adjust their usage. There will be a percentage of society for which fuel price means very little and any change in price will have no effect on their habits. For the rest of us, we have no choice but to be affected.

At the time of writing gas on average is $4.30 USD a gallon. In the UK gas is $9.72 USD a gallon and here in New Zealand we are paying $6 USD a gallon. No doubt as this is being read prices have increased. I'm not going to compare these prices based on living costs or earnings, but it's impossible to deny that these prices are hurting.

About six months ago I was happy to average 10 KPH (6 MPH) over the speed limit. This is the amount you can safely go over the limit without worrying about getting a speeding ticket. Knowing that a 20 KPH drop in speed can be a 25% fuel saving I have reduced my average speed, not by 20 KPH but down to the speed limit. Six months ago even when averaging 10 over the limit I was regularly getting over taken, now as I follow the speed limit I am getting over taken less and less.

The university that I study at has a large number of car parks, but unless you arrived there before 9am or after 3pm getting a park was a real struggle, at least that was the case last year. Now I can arrive at university at anytime of the day and be guaranteed a park, maybe not the best park but I still have a lot of choices. This is not due to a smaller role as the number of students has increased. Five minute car trips used to take little thinking about, now I am hesitant about any car trip if I can walk it in less than 20 minutes if I have the time. This is similar for many people I know.

Searches for petrol or gas on Google or here seem to be yielding more articles about how to decrease fuel usage. It appears more and more people are looking for ways to reduce this ever increasing cost. Differences in fuel use are controversial at best at the moment, but I'm sure even if we don't observe a drop in fuel consumption over the next year, habits of fuel use will become clearly different. Demand is currently higher than supply and as more people cut down of fuel use it will be a long time before use drops below demand if at all. This means increases are likely to keep happening and decreases are unlikely to happen once usage drops.

The best thing to come out of increased fuel prices is possibly less drivers on the road potentially meaning less dangerous drivers on the road. If more people start cutting down their speeding roads may become safer. We may even have less drunk drivers as courtesy vehicles mean the expensive cost of driving can be substituted for more drinks.

It is hard for changes not to happen, only time will tell how bad things have to get before real noticeable changes start happening.

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