Quote:
Originally Posted by rational1
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1997: Age 17. Got my license. I was THRILLED.
1999: Age 19. Got my first car. I was EVEN MORE THRILLED. I would drive around just to drive around. Premium gas was $1.29 per gallon, so even that gas-guzzling Cadillac wasn't THAT expensive to operate.
2001: Saw regular gas rocket up to $1.75 per gallon. Couldn't believe my eyes. But since this was all part of the plan, gas prices went back down to 99 cents per gallon by the end of the year.
2002: By the end of this year, gas was up 50% again. Should've known it was to be a big problem.
2004: Gas jumped from $1.44/gallon to $1.69/gallon overnight. I call this "the beginning of the end".
2005: Did what I never imagined I'd do, when gas topped $3/gallon. I bought a small 4-cylinder car.
2006: Good thing I wasn't driving that 4-cylinder car the night I had an accident due to a drunk driver. Who knows how banged-up I'd have been.
2008: I really wondered how people survived $4/gallon gas and $5/gallon diesel.
2009: To keep Americans thinking that there could be relief ahead, such that they wouldn't abandon cars en masse, gas prices were allowed to go back down to $1.29 per gallon. I saw them as low as $1.03 on the news.
2012: I started realizing exactly what's up with driving.
And here it is.
The government encouraged America to become vehicle-dependent through highway subsidies, the creation of the interstate system, and who knows how many subsidies to the automotive and petroleum industries. People moved further away from their jobs so they didn't have to remain in crime-ridden cities and could have room to stretch out, figuring that they could just drive. When the suburban culture was very firmly entrenched, so that people were completely addicted to driving, that was one goal accomplished. The other was the aggregation of manufacturing to certain localities in America, as well as many overseas. This guaranteed that most things were made "far away" and had to be transported to the rest of the country via truck or railroad. This is accomplished goal #2. After both of these became inextricably woven into the fabric of American society, gas prices were quadrupled. Now the payday had come. Now, when people couldn't just give up the use of vehicles propelled by petroleum-burning engines, they were going to be bitten where it hurt.
Furthermore, why do we drive? Answer: to get somewhere quickly. Y'ever tried driving in a densely populated area during the morning and late afternoon? You ain't going ANYWHERE quickly.
Road construction.
Property taxes to fund roads.
Accidents.
Detours.
Tolls and tollbooths.
Traffic lights that stay green forever while no cars go through the intersection and then turn yellow just as you approach. Then they stay red for over a minute while exactly one car goes through the cross street.
Money-hungry jurisdictions that use police officers as revenue-generating machines. (Why else would they sit at the side of the highway with radar guns out, when they SHOULD be patrolling dangerous neighborhoods to keep drugs and crime minimized?)
Outrageous costs to repair and maintain vehicles.
Registration costs.
State inspections with their costs.
Driver's license renewal costs.
Constantly being surrounded by lunatics while driving, rendering it extremely unsafe.
Insurance costs.
Depreciation on your new / newer vehicle.
And you could still break down in a dangerous area.
Sometimes I think... I'll just ride a bike. I'm almost 34 years old and I would LOVE to be able to give up driving. I hate being beholden to, and essentially dependent upon, something that subjects me to that much negativity on such a regular basis.
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