Dear fellow friends, Looks like the oil refineries are putting GOLD in our fuel. Just today in town a popular store was selling diesel fuel for $3.86 per gallon. The other day I paid $3.74 per gallon of diesel fuel. This ultra low sulfer diesel fuel takes more refining to get the sulfer content down below 500 parts per million. The fuel coming out of the plant has to be below 500 parts per million because the pipe lines are used for other fuels too. If they send Red died diesel fuel down a pipe line it has a high sulfer content. In between the transfers of fuel in the pipe line they have to send a PIG down the line to clean the line. So therefor there is still a small amount of residue left behind. These new diesel engines are running a soot trap along with EGR. CAT is using ACCERT technology. When the engine goes into regen mode they inject fuel up stream of the soot trap to get the temps up high enough to burn the carbon out of the trap. The newer engines according to Detroit Diesel the gas coming out of the exhaust is cleaner than the air going into the engine. So today's modern engines are cleaning the air we breath. I got off tract there, the Goverment needs to cut taxes on our fuel it is going to put a hamper on people. You will not be able to afford to go anywhere. :wink: :wink: Gasoline is the same CUT the TAXES help us out Dear Goverment. Just the other day oil was selling for over $100 a barrel. If I remember correctly a barrel of oil is 42 gallons of crude oil. We have sweet crude oil here in Texas CUT THE TAXES it does not take as much to refine as sour crude does. Even though we have sour crude too. :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: Being in competion with China over oil does not help matters at all. Build some new refineries to keep up with demand. :wink: :wink: :wink:
Holy Cow, Great balls of fire, holy smoke Batman, Did you hear that Robin? jej donecky! čekat věčnost, the sky is falling, nadechněte se zhluboka, thers gold in them there hills!, došel nám benzín, dig a hole to China! :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll:
In my town here in Germany (Pressath) benzine was $8.31 a gallon, or Euro 1.43 a litre. OUCH...I pay $3.26 a gallon (3.8 litres) on the military installation.
HHHHHHHHHHHHoooooooooollllllllllllllllllyyyyyyyyyyyyy ccccccoooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww! bat man! :roll: :roll:
Dana, The problem is that with very few exceptions Public Transport in the US in unreliable and doesn't meet the needs of the people. New York City is an exception to that rule...but I would be hard pressed to think of other cities where Public Transportation is reliable.
I can only add that first we need to say to our public officials over here "Create public transportation, PLEASE!!!" In many places (like here in Tampa) it simply doesn't exist in any really usable form. We only have a few far flung bus lines that run every half hour at best and hardly ever if at all on nights and weekends. If we had a system of trams and metros like Prague does, I probably wouldn't own a car.
I don't know about North America, but it seems people here in the Czech Republic are becoming dependent on their cars more and more. I can imagine that living in suburbs (or in villages, buses and trains don't go nearly as often as they used to) is pretty much impossible without a car. And people living in towns surely prefer to ride their big and heavy once-a-week shopping in a car instead of carrying it into bus/tram/metro and then on foot to their homes. Not to mention the popular (and to me) disgusting trend to call a tram "socka" hinting it's used only by unsuccessful people who can't afford to drive a car. But from what I read about the trams in Prague, I guess there might be really a problem with them (e.g. many homeless people riding in them, polluting seats, smelling badly etc.). Speaking about public transport in the USA, isn't one of the reasons (of course the main reason is the lack of comfort) why people don't (wouldn't) use it because they feel much safer in the car? Does majority of Americans living in big cities wishes for better public transportations systems or they think it would be just a waste of tax money (as it's unlikely public transport will be ever able to get even or make profit)?
Yes, I know that Mike and I'm very frustrated by it. My annoyed comment (for which I apologize) was not targeted at The Animal as much as on the whole U.S. system. I lived in Calif. and Texas and the fact that public transport is almost nonexistent there drove me nuts. I actually took the bus in Austin a few times and I felt very weird, often being the only Caucasian woman on it and sharing it with just a handful of people who seemed to be lower class workers. The BART trains in the S. F. Bay Area are pretty good, fast and reliable (although their cars tend to be dirty, messy and smelly) but then again, once you step off of it, you almost always need a car to get to your destination. It is really unfortunate that the public transport system is so bad in the U.S. (with a few exceptions like New York City or Portland, OR) and that it is largely perceived as something that only poor people have to use. I don't know what it would take to change the situation. I think Americans have been without public transport for so long that it would be very hard to get them to start using it again. Of course it would have to be put in place first... Anyway, we now live in Prague, haven't owned a car for four years and are happy without one. Parking is a huge hassle and driving around Prague is nonsense. The trams and metro are fast, clean and reliable. Yes, the homeless people on the trams are a problem but I see them pretty rarely, usually in the winter. Dragging shopping bags on the tram is not fun but I don't take public transport just to go to the store. I take it to go everywhere. I take the train to go to Moravia every so often and it is faster than driving. It is true that Czech villages and small towns have a more limited public transport these days and people who live there (like my parents) are becoming more dependent on their cars. It's a pity but at least there are still enough bus and train connections to get people to work and back every day.
In Czech, what's the average distance people drive to work? Here, it's nothing for one to drive 30-60 miles one way each day. I drive 40 miles one way and I've been doing it for 5 years and plan to do much longer. I was speaking to my step-daughter about this the other day and we live in a very small town. The local grocery store (only one in town) is very close to EVERYONE who lives in town, but if you would see someone walking to it, you would think they must have broke down or something and probably stop and ask them if they need help. My step-daughter said that in CR, everyone in town would walk to it, unless they were handicapped. :? That partly explains the reason many Americans are overweight. (And why we need escalators to get into the fitness club :wink: )
Part of the Problem is America has developed around the automobile and cheap gas. There are no stores around the corner or just down the block you can go to and pick up your daily shopping needs...people live far from work...
The second part of the problem is population density: in US suburbs it is very low and it is difficult to install good mass transit. Also, Americans drive huge cars with large fuel consumption and mostly in the cities. Back to euro prices of fuel: this is how we pay our taxes. You know, socialism and all that (or whatever you call it over there what we have in Europe). I think these taxes are something like 40% of state income or so.
Not easy to say in general, I just can say examples from my life: My boss - 60 miles (only twice a week) My other boss - 25 miles My co-workers - all more or less 10 miles My friends at school - 10, 20 miles (meaning from home to work, not school) My mum - 10 miles My aunt - 3 miles on daily regular basis. But depends, my cousin is working in prague and sometimes he drives there, but usually he is going by train. My other co-worker is living near Warsaw (250 miles), but he only drive to work about twice a month and stays at hotel). But I am living in industrial area, distances in rural areas will of course be longer.
I guess (regarding this topic) I'm not an average American. I drive a little over 3 miles to work each day (one way), have a small Mom and Pop convenience store (not a chain) about two blocks from my house that I walk to regularly, and have more than a dozen major stores and supermarkets in less than a mile radius from home. I also drive a Prius Hybrid and average about 40 mpg. If I wanted to use a bus (which runs only every half hour) to go to the nearest super market I would have to walk 3 blocks in the opposite direction to a bus stop, ride five blocks, get off and wait for a transfer (which also comes only every half hour), catch another bus and ride about twelve blocks to the store. Returning is a reverse except that I would have to cross a seven lane wide major street while carrying groceries to catch the first bus back. Walking or driving to the store is about 13 blocks (the back way) and takes about two minutes in the car and probably less time walking than the bus would take (especially if I miss the transfer and have to wait an extra half hour). The sad thing here too is that instead of offering more bus routes at more frequent intervals, the powers that be are reducing routes and frequency because of "lack of ridership". Duh!
When we lived in Calif., we had a large Safeway within a 3-minute walking distance from our place, which was in a decent size residential condo community. We and a French neighbor of ours were the only ones who ever walked to the store. Everyone else drove. It was funny to see those moms driving their large SUVs to pick up some groceries. Of course they had to park as close as possible to the store entrance, so they'd drive around and around until a space opened up... Another funny thing was, I got asked every time by those friendly cashiers if I needed help carrying my two plastic bags to my car. What do you say to that? Hmm, no thank you, no car, but I wouldn't mind if you carried them to my house for me... My goodness! Very low? Population density in U.S. suburbs is by no means very low! Some suburbs are like little towns of their own, very densely populated. There seems to be a trend of Americans moving to the suburbs in large numbers in the past years. Population density seems to have nothing to do with whether or not mass transit is put in place. Little Czech villages of a few hundred people are much better connected by public transport than large U.S. suburbs. Not only in the cities. They drive them everywhere. Although I hear that people are going back to smaller cars now that gas is so expensive. Glenn, you're a Prius man? That's awesome! That's the car Jeff and I want to get if we ever get a car here in Prague. Of course the Prius is ridiculously expensive in the Czech Republic.
Yes, I've had the Prius for almost 4 years now and I really like the car - absolutely the most enjoyable vehicle I have ever owned. I bought it just before they really started to take off in popularity (even got $200 off the suggested price - shortly thereafter dealers were charging as much as $5000 over MSRP :shock: ). I didn't really buy it for the mileage - don't do that much driving - but was impressed with its technology and low emissions. Wish they were more reasonable over there for you, they are just sort of average priced over here(I paid about $26,000 total for mine). I have owned over 40 different cars in my life and this one is my favorite.
That's great, Glenn! I'm happy to know that you enjoy your Prius so much. I'm really set on making it our next car although it costs about twice as much over here (the "Prius for the People" slogan certainly doesn't work here). I love the green idea, have an excellent experience with Toyota as such and I know that the Prius is very highly rated in several areas. Not to mention its sexy look.
