On our trip home from Mayo Clinic I took note of gas prices on the way home.  It was $2.39 in Rochester & Zumbrota, MN.  In Red Wing, MN it was $2.13 & $2.24.  In WI the average price along our route was $2.32.  And just up the street from our house it's been at $2.29 for a few weeks now.  

Come to the Bay Area in California, and you will  be shocked at the gas prices.  The station on the corner of my street has gas priced today at $3.329 per gal for reg unleaded, and thats the cheapest its been for weeks, and the cheapest gas around.

Fortunately, since we are both now retired we have very little need to drive.  I last filled the car on 1-4-20, and have only driven 89 miles since then.  We walk to the store for anything that we need between my weekly shopping trips.  I now can go 2 months without needing to buy gas.  So I guess we are doing our part to fight climate change, and I don’t feel the least bit deprived.

Eddie

Ram and Dodge are still part of Fiat-Chrysler

John L.

I still call it a Dodge Ram truck....old habits die hard.

Currently $2.45 regular at my local Gulf.

Like Ralph in the Bay Area, gas prices, when compared to many other areas, aren't cheap here either. Both of the vehicles I use, the F-150 and the Cadillac have V8's and the later uses pricey premium fuel. But being old, retired and living fairly close to the hospital (my home away from home) I really can't remember the last time I put gas in either one. I do feel badly for those who have jobs that take them all the way to the Inland Empire and even the Los Angeles area. What an ugly commute. 

Actually, a station or two here in town had regular below $3/gallon within the last few weeks.  I can't even remember when was the last time that happened.

Oddly, some of the lowest prices on gas I've found have been at Mobil stations, including one in pricey Los Gatos, where regular was $3.15/gallon last week.  The nearest Mobil to me is in a somewhat sketchy area has had it at $3.47 for a while, and that's the cash price.  Go figure.

I use oil company credit cards, so I'm always buying at name brand stations, usually Mobil or 76.  I don't use a Visa or MC at gas pumps due to the skimmers that can often land on pumps' card readers.   No thief is interested in a card that can only be used to buy gas.

Fellow member George and I were just talking yesterday about the HSR debacle here in California.  We both agreed that the current "train to nowhere" plan is a huge and costly mistake.  Scaling the project back from SF-to-LA and building only the segment between the Bay Area and Fresno/Modesto would make much more sense, create huge demand, and thus provide the incentive to subsequently complete the line all the way to LA.  I would ride that train a lot to LA, if only it were completed within my lifetime.

Of course, they never ask us.

Who the hell wants to go to Fresno/Modesto?  Only the people that live there.  Why not beef up the already existing tracks for the Amtrak Coast Starlighter, and put new, high speed trains on this route?  

We have a desperate need for rail service in the Bay Area and California in general.  Back when my parents were young,  people regularly traveled by train between the Bay Area and LA.  It took the better part of a day between both points.  My grandma used to take my Mom and her sisters to the LA garment district every year when they were teens to buy clothing there at bargain prices.

In the North Bay we have the SMART train, which has been very mismanaged.  It was financed with a 1/4% sales tax that is set to run out in 2029 I believe.  Currently there is a ballot measure to extend this tax and many people are up in arms about this.  I say lets finish what we started, the tax isn’t that onerous and in another 10 to 20 years we’ll all be glad that we have this train.

My main beef with the SMART train is that it was originally sold to the taxpayers as an answer to alleviating the commute traffic.  But somewhere along the way the management of the SMART train decided to cater to the tourist trade, rather than the commuters, AKA the taxpayers that are funding this train, and I do resent this “bait and switch” tactic.  But nevertheless, I plan on voting to extend the 14% sales tax, with the hopes that eventually this train will ultimately provide the much needed alternative to auto travel on the highly congested Hwy101 corridor, with regularly scheduled runs 24/7 at least every 30 mins so people will really have a viable alternative to the automobile.

Eddie

Eddie, the Fresno/Modesto link would be for all of the poor souls who are commuting into and out of the Bay Area every day via I-580 and the inadequate SR 152.  HSR would get them across this distance in a small fraction of the time it takes by car, crawling along in stop-and-go traffic for over 100 miles.  The only reason people opt to live in these outlying areas is because they can't afford the greater Bay Area, whether renting or buying.  HSR would give them a big chunk of their lives back.   Service workers are already in short supply in the Bay Area because they can't afford housing here.

I don't know if trying to operate HSR along the current Amtrack line between SF and LA would be any more feasible than the inland route.  I think that HSR could run at a much faster speed down the Big Valley with a straight shot between the SF and LA metro areas, and I imagine there would be serious opposition to the impact of HSR system upgrades from San Luis Obispo and on down the coast through Ventura.

It's primarily wealthy, fanatically right-wing anti-government farmers and ranchers who are against HSR's inland route, just for the sake of opposing the will of us common folk who are seeking commute relief and an alternative to flying.

I didn’t think about this Fresno/Modesto HSR terminus in respect to the commuters that would benefit from it, my bad.  I agree that it would make good sense to at least build HSR to this end, with the promised intent to eventually extend it all the way to LA.  And, yes there could be problems with retro fitting the coast Amtrak line to accommodate HSR trains, but this may be possible with the right sales pitch to sell the idea.

No matter what, I believe that we must pursue mass transit and train service for the whole Bay Area and also a line from the Bay Area to LA, it will be money well spent in the long run.

We had better mass transit in Sonoma Co. and the Bay Area prior to the end of WWII than we do now.  

It was Standard Oil and GM that systematically dismantled the Key System Trains and the rest of the other rail transit thru out the Bay Area.  And in its place built all the highways that would require lots of Standard Oil gas to fuel the GM and other auto manufactures cars.  The rest is history.  

You’re probably too young to remember that the Bay Bridge lower deck was for two way bus and truck traffic only, with the Key System trains running along the sides of the roadway.  On the upper deck it was two way auto traffic only, no trucks or buses.  And the ferries still ran from Oakland to San Francisco until about 1958 as I recall. And the ferry ran from Richmond to Larkspur until the San Rafael Bridge opened in 1957.  I vividly recall my Dad driving the car onto the ferry when we went to the Russian River in the summer.  I always thought that this was quite an adventure.

Eddie

Eddie, you forgot the 3rd Musketeer -- Firestone.  Or was it Goodrich?  Those must have been some heady times in Ohio and Michigan.  This town lost all of its trolleys that cris-crossed the valley all the way up to the lower peninsula.  

Public transportation was far better in the '30s than anything running now.  They can't even get a lousy ten-mile extension of BART going due to glitches, setting a project that was built ahead of schedule way behind due to software problems and issues with electrical work.  Mismanagement is rampant at all levels of transit, and I'm 100% in favor of regionalizing things into one large agency instead of dozens of smaller ones that don't sync up or communicate.

You're right that I have no memory of the original configuration of the Bay Bridge, but I've read about it and seen old films and photos.  How civilized that was!  I knew the Key System had run trains over the bridge.  We could sure use something like that to supplement BART across the bay these days.

What goes around comes around.  They're building new ferry terminals and the fleets are increasing, as are the number of new operators.   Every little bit helps.

$2.14 here today for reg unleaded when I filled up my Jimmy.  I didn't notice diesel prices...I'm currently on vacation and haven't had to fill up the TDI in 2 weeks.

Notice that even way back then the tax added a substantial amount to the cost...

it’s $2.999 per gal for reg unleaded at the station on the corner near us, and thats the cheapest gas you can find around here.  

Don’t make no never mind to me.  I filled the tank on 3-5 and I’ve only driven 54 miles since then.  At this rate I may be able to go until the end of July before I need gas again.  I’ll probably need a new battery first.

Eddie

$2.07 for reg. yesterday at my local Conoco. Not that it matters. Other than to go to supermarkets, the truck  stays parked. But I am getting terrific mileage. A month to the gallon.

$1.76 here outside of Nashville.

Note that crude oil prices are underwater.  MINUS $37/barrel.  The producers will pay YOU $37 to haul it away.  If you had the permits, licenses, facilities, you could really clean up, so to speak.