Expensive Gas Helps Us All! (Tank 307 - 17 February 2K12)

Refueled this morning at the Fas mart near my house, which is a huge surprise, I know.

The Mighty Corolla had gone 431.3 miles, and I put in 11.346 gallons of gas, making for a fuel economy of 38.01 miles per gallon for this tank.

Gas was $3.499 per gallon.

Last year, I concluded that $3.50 a gallon was a good price that caused enough idiot drivers to drive less erratically, which reduced the number of people weaving in and out of traffic, which reduced the number of people who got cut off and had to tap on the brakes in knee-jerk-reaction to being cut off by the jackrabbit who just has to get ahead of whoever is in front of him, which reduced the accordion effect of the following cars each slowing down a tiny little bit more as a result, which helped the average speed of us all, and the general traffic flow to increase.

I made a chart and everything that indicated that my average drive home times went down by about ten minutes when gas prices went over about $3.50 per gallon. It was great.

But as with all things, I stopped updating it since I had proven my point. And also since gas prices went back down and nobody cared any more and went back to their selfish death-defying Tony Stewart wannabe driving styles.

Happily, gas is getting expensive again, and I can look forward to generally smoother commutes home for the near future, as some of the fools who zip and dash through traffic alone in their 15-mile-per-gallon SUVs start thinking about how to spend less money on gasoline and start to drive more sensibly.

In about six months, my office will be moving to a new location closer to my home, and much of this mayhem will be removed from my daily commuting life. My hope is that gas prices remain high until that time, and stay that way for a long time afterwards.

In the meantime, I'll update my gas price/commute time home chart to confirm my argument that higher gas prices and faster commutes home go hand in hand!