$4 a Gallon Gas: The Perks

Can there be an upside to these $4 gas prices we're seeing? Time seems to think so: 10 Things You Can Like About $4 Gas.

I knew that if gas prices ever got high enough, many of these things would happen. I do feel bad for those trapped by our atrocious, auto-centric urban planning in situations where they have to drive to jobs that can barely cover their gas because public transit is too inconvenient or just not available. But they're about the only ones I can feel bad for. When I see big SUV's rolling down the road, I have a hard time feeling bad for them. Maybe that makes me a bad person, but that's the way I feel.

When my wife and I moved recently, we purposely focused our search near the parts of town where something like 98% of our life happens. Now we live a mile from my wife's office and our church, which means she walks to work daily and we often walk to church. I'm currently working part-time from home, but I can easily catch a bus to the office, and I think I'm about to be offered some part-time research work that would be a short walk from another bus line. This just goes to show that with a bit of planning, it's not that hard to make this situation work for you.

Take a look at what you're doing and see if you can turn these $4 lemons into even richer lemonade.

What was I saying?

In my last post, I pointed to some articles about the end of the American car culture.

Today, the national average for gasoline hit $4.02 per gallon.

While I hate to see it come to this, I've long had  a feeling this is what it would take to get people to start changing their habits. The pain in the pocket book is certainly getting people's attention. Now, to get people to stick to these new habits even if prices go down; that will be the true challenge.