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

Black Gold

[izmeina]

In Oz, it's somewhere around $1.30 per litre which these days is almost the same as 1.30 in US Dollars (just the excuse Izzie needs to go shopping at Amazon)
So that's probably half way between US prices and Euro prices
Izzie is lucky not to need to know the price but it does have run on effects in that so much stuff is transported long distances
Dursleyville has a reasonable public transport system but it seems to be a universal rule that the more central (ie - here more expensive) suburbs have better and cheaper public transport than the outlying areas
The Iz decided many moons ago that it made more sense to pay extra to live in a location near to everything rather than get something cheaper but have to travel more and to be totally dependent on a car. Not just for convenience and savings in time but there's another more insidious double whammy. Here in Oz, the cost of travel to and from work is usually not tax deductable whereas capital gains on your place of residence is tax exempt. So once again - the people who live in the outlying areas end up with the worst of both worlds

But nowadays - such choices are almost nonexistent - even a place like the humble Lair would require two middle class incomes to buy at the ridiculous present prices of property. Iz really should be using all that time saved to do something constructive.

Was shocked to learn that at the turn of last century a lot of US cities had excellent public transport such as trains and trams. But apparently the likes of Ford and GM managed to buy them out and of course destroy the networks thus making people even more dependent on private cars.

The bit that Izzie finds so sad and pathetic is the ridiculously low standards for fuel efficiency in the US. Something like 26 miles per gallon. And they see even that as an infringement on their liberty.
Oh just wait for the time that the price of petrol will be based not just on the cost of getting it out of the ground and to the market plus a big fat juicy profit margin but the cost of actually producing the stuff - ie subjecting organic plant matter to high temperatures and pressures for thousands of years at current electricity prices. After all - that is the real cost of fuel.

Well one good thing to come out of it - call it Schadenfreude if you like but the Iz so so enjoys watching all those Hummers suffer. (this place too is plagued with a plethora of suburban assault vehicles that never ever get to see a speck of dirt)

Re: Black Gold

[max_und_moritz]

---The Iz decided many moons ago that it made more sense to pay extra to live in a location near to everything rather than get something cheaper but have to travel more and to be totally dependent on a car.

Excellent foresight; that´s exactly what I´ll do, too, when the time comes to leave the batcave behind :( For now, I use the bike and the train/tram all I can, though with the terrible shortage of ambulance drivers and their cars always breaking down because they´re so old, it´s good that at least a few of the dwellers in remote villages such as ours have a car; even so, it´s been often a close thing driving Gran to hospital in the last few emergencies she´s had (I was serious about a motorbike but you can neither transport Gran, nor a dog, nor ten bags of groceries in one, and in winter it´s downright suicidal...)

26 miles per gallon? That´s about 40 kilometres per 4 liters, right? Wow... my little Easter egg makes 100 kilometres per 3.8 liters - at a cruising speed of 110 km/hour on average, on the highway too. And a Hummer is the kind of monster you only see in UN/EU peace missions here *g*
If I can´t do without a car, then my dream´s a hybrid *sigh*