Wow. Wow, wow. Do they bike a lot in your corner of Europe? I'm just about to start commuting again and it makes me sick--not only the price of gas, but also how we're using so much during this nutty crisis.

- Molly
www.glossary-of-field-work.blogspot.com

People bike everywhere in Europe. Except my husband and I, who are stupid, and have TWO cars. :(

Cheapest price over here is around €1.60 per litre (about SEK 14.95), but some gas stations charge up to €1.73 (SEK 16.16). I don't even want to think about what I paid ten years ago...

It's completely insane.

What really annoys me is that when the oil prices go down again, the petrol prices stay the same. Apparently, all petrol companies are making huge profits at the moment. I wouldn't mind if they would use those profits to invest in research to come up with more environment-friendly solutions, but I don't exactly see that happening...

They sure seem to be determined to go out in a blaze of...er...glory.

I do keep in mind that, while painful, the approx. $4.25 per gallon I'm seeing now is still half of what many others are paying. Nevertheless, it is painful to think that a few short years ago it was about 1/3rd that cost.

Given the fact that we've (the United States) known for about 30 years that this day was coming and we did very little to prepare for it makes me hella angry. Not the fact that I'm paying this much now (because I get the laws of supply and demand and understand that when supply goes down, cost goes up), but the fact that the government knew we'd be paying this much sooner or later yet didn't have the guts or political will to help institute changes to help alleviate a crisis. Now we're on the brink of a crisis that was clearly foreseen for decades. Gah!

On the plus side, I can report that at least 15% more people are commuting by bus in my neck of the woods. Thankfully I live in a corner of the world where the granola-crunching hippies (said with the best of affection) have some real influence, so the bones of a pretty sophisticated bike, train, trolley and bus system are already in place. Of course, this helps only city dwellers; country folk are still on their own.

Yowza. Here, it's also close to $9 a gallon, but at least we don't have to drive very often... It's such a relief to live in a town with three kinds of public transportation and plenty of stores within walking distance.