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Backseat Driver: Sticker shock at the pumps

I went to fill up the car at the Cumberland Farm station in Jamestown last night and was shocked to see the price of regular was $3.52 a gallon. Plus was $3.62 a gallon and Premium was $3.72.

I chose regular.

I was mulling this latest case of sticker shock – and why I should be shocked I don’t know, as I track the price of oil daily and as a Brit I am only too well aware of the declining value of the dollar – when up drives my friend Don Wineberg to fill up his Toyota Prius.

(Actually I have a theory about the price of gasoline and its role as an indicator of inflation. It’s not that gasoline accounts for that much of the average family budget - around 7 percent - but week in, week out, we fill the car or truck up, buying the same amount of the same commodity. So we notice when the price goes up.

I’m told food prices are going up too, but I don’t perceive them moving in the same way. What’s a gallon of milk cost this week compared to last? No idea. A gallon of gasoline? Well, I know it was less.)

“Wait till you see the price, you’re in for a shock,” I said to Don as he got out of his Prius and prepared to gas up.

He certainly was surprised and after filling the car said the $36 he spent on about 10 gallons of gasoline was the most he had ever spent.

Meanwhile, I had just spent close to $60 to fill up my Volvo station wagon.

Okay, we’d both spent the same per gallon and yes, we both joined everyone else by experiencing sticker shock.

But here’s the rub:

After saying that was the most he’s spent on filling his Prius with 10 gallons of gas, he added, “But that’ll take me 500 miles.”

My 17 gallons of gas, on the other hand, will take me less than 400 miles.

- Peter C.T. Elsworth

Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth  at 3:01 PM to Gas prices | Permalink | Comments 0

Oil prices recede after surging close to $120

LONDON — Record-breaking oil prices fell on Wednesday after spiking near 120 dollars per barrel, as international concern mounted over soaring energy costs and the world's top producer appealed for calm, according to Agence France Presse.

Traders were also on tenterhooks ahead of the weekly US energy inventories report, which has the potential to push prices beyond the psychological barrier of 120 dollars.

New York's main oil futures contract, light sweet crude for delivery in June, shed 33 cents to 117.74 dollars a barrel. The May contract had struck a record high 119.90 before expiring Tuesday.

Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth  at 12:29 PM to Crude oil market | Permalink | Comments 0

Backseat Driver: Get 'em off the roads!

I can't make it up.

Just a few days after I wrote about the carnage caused by drunk drivers, a new study from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) finds Rhode Island ranks high in estimated numbers of adults driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs. Disgracefully high.

Indeed, Rhode Island ranks 8th in the estimated number of adults driving drunk in the past year, with a 20.4 percent ranking. Wisconsin topped the list with 26.4 percent, followed by North Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska, South Dakota, Kansas, Massachusetts and then Rhode Island.

Mormon-dominated Utah rounded out the list with 9.5 percent; Mormons eschew alcohol.

And when it comes to driving under the influence of drugs, Rhode Island ranks an even worse second with 6.8 percent. Only the District of Columbia ranks worse with 7.0 percent. New Jersey came in best with only 3.2 percent.

While I am sure these numbers are open to interpretation, the results are damning. At what point do we seriously regard drunk driving as totally unacceptable because of the regular mayhem caused to innocent people?

As I have said earlier, do not give me that BS about alcoholism being a disease. I really don't care if it is or it isn't. And it certainly should not serve as an excuse. The main thing is to get drunk drivers off the roads where they are a public danger.

And when I say drunk drivers, I mean ALL of us. I admit I have driven a few times with one or two many drinks inside me - and I'll bet most of you have too. I've been lucky in not having had an accident, let alone hurt anyone. And I mean lucky.

Too often we think we can handle our social drinking. And too often luck is on our side. But when it is not, the results can be disastrous.

If a drunk driver drives into a tree and ends up dead or injured, that's his or her problem (and a problem for police officers who have to clean up the mess).

But if a drunk driver kills or maims innocent people, it is our problem. None of us deserves that level of bad luck.

- Peter C.T. Elsworth

Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth  at 11:47 AM to Safety | Permalink | Comments 0

One day's worth of R.I. road trash equals 800 bags

Journal photo / Bill Murphy
Nami Moghadan, director of maintenance for the Rhode Island Department of Transportation, stands next to trash collected from the state's roadsides on Monday. The pile was the focus of an Earth Day press event aimed at asking motorists to help keep the state's roads, highways and bridges clean.

Eight hundred bags of trash.

That's the result of one day's work cleaning up roads in Rhode Island this week.

The pile was used by the state Department of Transportation to illustrate the trash problem in the state.

DOT Director Michael Lewis said, “Every piece of trash we had to pick up was disposed of improperly and that’s a shame.”

The biggest litter problems in Rhode Island are beverage containers, including water, soda and alcohol bottles, fast food packaging, and cigarette butts, according to the DOT. Nationally, the top three litter problems are fast food waste, paper products, and aluminum beer cans.

The DOT says debris on roadways nationwide causes 25,000 accidents and over 80 fatalities each year. About 55 percent of roadside litter occurs intentionally by people dropping their trash on the road. The other 45 percent of roadside litter is caused by trash blowing out of uncovered trucks or falling off of unsecured loads.

“While it might only take two to five weeks for a banana peel to decompose, it takes 200 to 500 years for an aluminum can to do the same. RIDOT is asking motorists to take their trash home and dispose of it properly because Earth Day isn’t just today but every day,” said Lewis.

Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth  at 11:23 AM to On the road | Permalink | Comments 0

Toyota takes 1Q world sales lead from General Motors

DETROIT -- Toyota has taken the global automotive sales lead from General Motors, selling 2.41 million vehicles to GM's 2.25 million over the first three months of the year, according to the Associated Press.

GM said Wednesday its first-quarter sales dropped across the globe by less than 1 percent, but Toyota said its sales were up 2.7 percent during the January-March period.

GM barely won the global sales race with Japan-based Toyota Motor Corp. last year. But Toyota overtook General Motors Corp. as the world's top automaker as measured by global vehicle production in 2007.

Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth  at 11:13 AM to GM , Toyota | Permalink | Comments 0