20 cents in 4 days

When I ride to work in the morning there's a Tower gas station the has a big bright LED display for its prices. Thursday I saw the price for regular gas at $3.99. This morning it was $4.19. If Peak Oil hasn't already hit, we're pretty damn close. People are talking about gas prices from $7 to $15/gal by the end of the year. Whether it goes up that quick or never comes down any remains to be seen, but the days of cheap gas are over.

Keep Ridin' That Bike

Gas prices are set to shoot up again this summer. They're projected to go up to $3.60 nationally, which means more like $3.90 here in Sonoma county. At periods it's expected to reach past $4.30 here. My work commute is about 22 miles there and back and my old pony gets a smidge over 20 miles per gallon, so it's about a gallon a day. I think of it as paying a $4.00 daily ticket for the priviledge of earning a living.

Except I ride my bike. I get in free. I don't ride when it rains, but it doesn't rain very much out here. In the ten years that I've been doing this, I've saved about 8 grand or so and my savings rate is accelerating. Granted, I live close enough and I don't have kids to pick up and I don't have to wear a suit, but still, I think it just doesn't occur to people that they can do this.

That may change. Every time there's a spike in gas prices I see more people in the bike lane. I really don't mind the prices going up, especially in the summer when I can ride every day. More people will ride and we'll use that much less oil. And have thighs of steel.