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WORD COUNT
662
JUNE 18, 2008
DRIVING WAS SURE FUN
WHILE IT LASTED – by Donald Kaul
Who said that the
power of the Press is dead? A few weeks ago I told people to stop
whining about the high price of gasoline and do something about it;
namely, use less gas.
Almost immediately,
the American people responded. In March of this year Americans drove 11
billion fewer miles than they did in March of 2007 and used 4.3 percent
less gasoline.
That marks the first
time since 1979 that traffic has declined from one March to the next and
constitutes the biggest drop since the government started keeping track
in 1942. Which means that my advice has had a greater impact on gas
consumption than either World War II or the gas lines of the Carter
years.
I am so proud.
I am well aware,
however, that with power comes responsibility. So it is with deep
humility that I say to my fellow Americans:
It’s not good enough,
kids. You have to do better.
You’re still
spending, on the average, four percent of your disposable income on fuel
(in some rural areas, 10-15 percent). That’s more than twice as much as
you were spending in 1998. In other words, too much.
And you haven’t even
thought about increasing fuel standards or lowering speed limits. All
you’ve done is complain and cut a measly 4.3 percent from your gas bill.
A
Chicago
woman, a single mother of two, told the New York Times: “Rising gas
prices end up hurting working, lower class people like me, who can’t
afford it anymore.”
So what else is new?
All bad things---wars, economic depressions, inflation, George
Bush---end up hurting the working classes most. That is the way of the
world, folks, particularly when the world is being run by a party whose
answer to all problems is tax-cuts for the rich.
So don’t think
government will help you. Don’t wait for the oil companies to give you
a hand. And if you’re expecting our oil-producing Arab allies to bail
you out, forget it.
To repeat what I’ve
said before: If you want to stop spending so much on fuel, use less of
it. And I’m not talking about a four percent cut, I’m talking a 20, 30,
even 40 percent cut in consumption.
That won’t be easy.
You can only do so much with car-pooling, driving sensibly and one-trip
multiple errands. You’re going to have to find alternative modes of
transportation.
I don’t mean to blow
my own horn, but this is what I have done: I got rid of one of my cars,
thus making my wife and me a one-car family. I can’t tell you that
there aren’t moments of conflict over who should have the car and when
but basically it’s working out fine. And it gives one a sense of moral
superiority.
When it’s
inconvenient to walk or ride a bike to where I’m going, I take a bus.
This has it’s own inconveniences, of course, but so does dragging around
a 3500-pound car that has to be parked and attracts expensive tickets
not to mention dents in the doors.
Buses would be more
convenient if there were more of them and there’d be more of them if
more people used them. Start using them.
As for long-distance
hauls, there are trains. Yes, they’re still with us. They’re like
Santa Claus---just because you don’t see them doesn’t mean they don’t
exist.
I recently took two
train rides---one from
New York to Michigan
(in a sleeping compartment) and one a round-trip between
Ann Arbor
and Chicago.
I’m here to say they
were…OK. Not a patch on what train travel used to be in this country
and still is in
Europe,
but better than sitting, fists clenched on a steering wheel, for hour
after hour as you dodge homicidal truckers.
Gas prices are going
to get higher before they get lower. It’s time to adjust our living to
them. Complaining is just a waste of hot air.
--
Don Kaul is a
two-time Pulitzer Prize-losing
Washington
correspondent who, by his own account, is right more than he's wrong.
Email:
dkaul2@earthlink.net --
A photo of Donald Kaul is available CLICK
HERE
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