Have high gas prices changed your behavior?

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Permalink Reply by Rae Kridel on June 23, 2008 at 7:15am

We're definitely looking closer to home for weekend fun, and I try to stack up client meetings all on one day, so I venture out from my office less frequently.

My husband is in law school in Bloomington and commutes down, but we're considering moving there for the next two years to use less gas. I don't want to do it, I'm getting pretty entrenched in the Indy community and I love it up here, but our gas consumption is much much more than we'd like.

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Permalink Reply by Nila Nealy on June 23, 2008 at 8:16am

I have been working from the home office quite a bit, rather than driving in to the office. As for weekend/non-work travel, for a few years already I'd been cognizant of how much driving I did for that. I'd say I've pushed myself even more in that way. I consolidate a lot of stops into one round trip.

In October I dumped my minivan (avg. 14 mpg) for a smaller car (avg. 24 mpg*). I told Steve last night that I'm so glad I made that move. Those are true averages based on my driving, not what the manufacturers say, by the way.

The other thing I've done is to change my driving style to maximize what gas I do use: turn off my car if I will idle for more than 10 seconds (no it's not harder on the engine and doesn't use more gas to restart), I accelerate more slowly, (try to!) obey the speed limits and brake earlier to get more coast. That took me up a mile or two per gallon. The jury's still out on the figure, so it's not in my avg. mpg* above.

Finally, because gas has influenced the price of everything else, especially food, we're starting to make some changes there. At this point, that's mostly just being aware. But, we also planted a small garden and are starting to shop the farm stands, as well as doing what we should have been doing all along and that's eating less packaged/processed and leaning on what's in season or on special.

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Permalink Reply by Erik Deckers on June 23, 2008 at 8:52am

We saw this coming a few years ago, and dumped our SUV back when you could still get more than $10,000 for them (nowadays, I see them going for $5,000). We bought a Scion XB, which gets 28 - 30 mpg, and I'm still driving my 1999 Dodge Neon. One of these days, I'll get my own Scion, or maybe a hybrid.

We also made a commitment to move inside Indianapolis, rather than the suburbs, so now I only drive 5 miles to work, not 20.

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Permalink Reply by Stephen James on June 23, 2008 at 11:48am

I'm not changing my behavior. Right now, it's not worth switching to anything more fuel efficient (not even sure what that would be, we have a Camry and a Civic, right now).

My wife and I are buying a house, so we are buying all Energy Star appliances, front loading washers, and top mounted freezer refrigerators. The front loading washer is $250 more, but that cover itself over 10 years in water usage, hot water usage, and less drying time due to RPMs. So we might send $100 more than we would otherwise on each appliance to get better efficiency.

That reminds me I should probably post some questions about new things for a house on the blog.

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Permalink Reply by Douglas Karr on June 23, 2008 at 11:57am

I work North side and live South side. I used to go downtown and up north on Weekends, but I've stopped doing that. I've also spoken to my boss about working from home 1 or 2 days a week.

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Permalink Reply by Bob Sullivan on June 23, 2008 at 11:58am

I'm not so much changing my behavior as finding that circumstances happened to work out. The decision to leave my previous job (not a small amount involved significant miles and wear-and-tear on my vehicle) a couple months ago and focus on my writing business from home has certainly worked to m advantage this summer. Unfortunately, that still leaves one gas-guzzling van (that's a carpeted and renovated cargo van, not a mini-van) doing kid duty. And with three little ones, that's not likely to change soon. We just don't go out much, and when we do, we keep it close.

Bob

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Permalink Reply by Gus Pearcy on June 23, 2008 at 3:07pm

The single biggest change has been awareness. I try to combine trips and really get agitated when I have to make a special trip for anything.

We haven't been careless, but I think we are planning more like what to eat so we can make less trips to the grocery store.

I take care of the car more and actually avoid drive-thrus when I don't have a car full of kids.

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Permalink Reply by Stephen Howard on June 23, 2008 at 3:21pm

At this point the gas prices have not changed my behaviors. I have started to think about changing our habits and what the effects would be, I just can't seem to justify any type of significant change.

What are some ways that are truly practical to cut cost with rising gas prices?

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Permalink Reply by Chris "Topher" Overstreet on June 23, 2008 at 3:25pm

You know what? I hadn't really thought about it until this weekend. Living downtown, my radius was really small before, but now that I'm going to the north side more for client meetings, grocery shopping and the gym, I'm spending almost $40/week on gas (yes, I know those folks with the Fishers-to-Downtown commute have little sympathy).

In any case, as it approaches $50/fill-up, I think I'll start really changing my driving habits. That's kind of my threshold...I might start grocery shopping less, riding my bike to the gym or try to stack client meetings like Rae does. I still remember when gas was under $2/gallon! Then again, I remember thinking $20 for a fill-up was a lot then.

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Permalink Reply by Brandon Sobotka on June 24, 2008 at 12:17am

I recently moved closer to work to decrease my gas costs, however I'm still highly considering riding my bike to work to save more. It will also improve my health. It's win-win. I guess you lose a little time, but that's okay with me. I recently visited California and it seemed as though half the people were riding bikes. It's awesome to see businessmen rolling into work on their bikes! While talking to many of the people I noticed that they really make a conscious effort to be energy efficient and keep the area clean. I think we can learn from it.

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Permalink Reply by Cissi Sherlock on June 24, 2008 at 11:18am

Oh Yeah!

Everyone who gets into my car contributes to the tank. Even my 15 year-old if she just wants to go to the mall! Even Grandma if she just want to go to the grocery.

Yes, we feed the pig. The PIG is my gas tank!

Consequently, I still get a chance to drive most everywhere I did prior to the astronomical prices most of the time because I take people to where they want to go and I take care of my business while I am out.

As far as the gas issue is concerned. I am glad that our society is beginning to see that we do need oil to maintain a standard of living. We just need to be responsible for our our own country's fuel use - FIRST! As with any family, we must take care of our own.

And, as for the use energy efficient cars. We have millions upon millions of cars that consume gasoline that won't be off the road for many years to come. Look at the ages of a lot of the cars that are on the road now. Many of us will never be able to afford to go out and buy a new car just to appease the environmentalists or save the world. Alternative actions will not help those who just can't afford it. Especially, since we do have resources available right here in our own country to take care of our own people and problems. We have to make sure that those Americans who will be still using gasoline powered cars will have a way to sustain their gasoline powered cars.

NOt trying to make a political statement here - this is from my heart, but I LOVE Our country. It is truly the greatest country in the world. It is the land of opportunity!

(In my mind I heard the Army/Navy Choir going into a chorus of "This is God's country.....!)

~C~

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Permalink Reply by Wanda Stine on July 16, 2008 at 10:23pm

I'm just getting used to forums and discussions. I saw this one and HAD to reply. I'm late on it, but its a relevant issue! My husband and I have seven children. He services Indy area office equipment computers, etc so he spends a lot on gas, and gets a small percentage in reimbursement checkes. The cost of gas is literally making our grocery money dwindle away! Homesteading is the theme of how we plan to handle this crisis, and so for our second year in a row, I am gardening, to offset the costs. And I don't mean a tiny garden, either! I am also canning for the first time this year. Next spring we hope to buy a couple of goats for milk, as well as some chickens. Until then, we look for where milk is on sale and if one of us is near one of those locations, THAT is where we buy the milk. There is a CVS that has it for $2.39 a gallon just down the street so that's what we've been doing lately. I'm adding to my free lancing work load, to off set the cost of living, and we spend way more time at home. We have a membership to the Children's museum so we go there and that's about it.

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