Snowed in, Vienna looks just like its version in "Amadeus"... <3

[max_und_moritz]

Gallon of gas costs 3.21 $ in the USA (Source: CNN. Worksafe.)

So... what´s their problem, exactly? Because:

1 gallon [US, liquid] = 3.8 liter
3.8 x 1.27 Euro/liter = 4.826 Euro/gallon
4.826 Euro/gallon = 7.04607 USD/gallon here

Comments

[measi]

I agree that we Americans do complain far too much about gas prices. There's a double-edged sword to it, though, and that's the way our infrastructure is built.

Unless you're in one of the northeastern U.S. cities, there *is* no public transportation. Car shares work only if folks live within a few miles of each other, traveling to a job that's within a few miles of one another, and work a similar schedule to one another- otherwise, it doesn't work.

I mean, look at my husband and me - we work over 20 miles away from each other. He *does* drop me off and pick me up from the train station, and it's still a nightmare because the trains run on time only about 50% of the time.

[max_und_moritz]

Yeah, now I understand where the catch is :/ and I guess distances are far greater over there than here, and public transport here is expensive, but it´s always on time *ruffles hair*

[silent_ic_river]

The distances, US versus much of Europe, aren't even in the same ball park. People in Northern California, in the 'Beltway' of Washington, DC, and in the greater NYC metro, often commute over 50 miles each way (in NorCal commutes of 180 miles round trip aren't that unusual). Why? A three bedroom home in a so-so neighborhood of Berkeley, CA (10 miles from SF, 30-60 minutes commute by train) is $750,000. A 3 bedroom home in Hercules (1.5 hours drive during non-commute hours) goes for about $450,000-500,000. The quality of life between the two places is huge.

[max_und_moritz]

Yes, you´re right; the distances are different, and the cities there are HUGE, while even the capital of a country in Central Europe rarely has more than 2 million inhabitants (and that counts as huge already!).

It´s about the same here for home values, though prices aren´t so horribly high (you can find a 3-bedroom home in a restored Baroque house in the center of Vienna, 10 minutes by tube from the Opera or the cathedral both smack in the heart of the old city, for 200.000 USD; the same about 40 miles east or south is less than half that price). The quality of life is equally high in both places, fortunately, as Vienna ranks among the top three capitals to live in the world; it´s only a matter of preferences (garden or not; culture vulture or nature freak, etc.)

Hey, I commute 62 miles daily each way too, and that´s not unusual here either (but then, as I said, most people have good if expensive trains/buses to get to work/school).

[silent_ic_river]

I had forgotten that Europeans were starting to commute as much as Americans. I was in Dublin about 20 months ago and was shocked to discover that folks were driving in 60 miles to work in the city (housing prices being shockingly high downtown or near in).
It's a pity we just don't have public transit set up and, worse yet, the attitude about public transit, that it's for the poor and it shouldn't cost much at all. This is what I try to get over to people, you get what you pay for, if you don't want to pay the going rate to get to work, you're going to get a shoddy train/bus company.