Good Driving Habits. How easy it is to forget…

I’m probably one of many folks who think the high gas prices are a good thing.  Everyday in the news we see the positive results of high gas prices.  Although overshadowed by the negatives, the positives are there.  More motorcycles and scooters on the road, fewer emissions polluting the air (see whats happening in China as they prepare their skies for the Olympics), better driving habits, more carpooling, smaller cars, fewer SUV’s, more bicycling.  These are good things.  But, now that we have seen gas prices rapidly drop in the past few weeks, old hard to break habits are starting to come back.  For example, when gas prices hit the upper $3.00’s earlier this year, my neighbors 17 year old daughter parked her Dodge Ram pickup and began riding to work with her mother.  Why not, they live and work at the same place and it was refreshing to see a teen using some good ole common sense.  However, yesterday, gas was at 3.59 to 3.63 a gallon locally and and already 3 days this week, both mother and daughter have taken their own vehicles to work at the same place and coming and going at the same time. This is my neighborhood example but I’m sure it well represents the thinking of a lot of America.  It wont be long before Ford begins making the Ford Excursion II with it’s 3 MPG and 100 gallon tank and it will be the best selling tank in America.   It was all too good to be true.

The other interesting thing about all this is us jumping on the $3.59 bargain gas.  I had to wait for my place at the pump to get gas as it seemed that everyone wanted to fill up on the cheap stuff before it jumped back up an additional 3 cents a gallon.   Which by the way only means an extra 60 cents for a twenty gallon fill up.  If we saw 60 cents laying in the gutter, few of us would be tempted to bend over and pick it up.  Congratulations go out to te oil companies as they have now conditioned us to thinking that $3.59 a gallon is a bargain.