The Gasoline Thread

[Sirgin]

Isn't petrol in Belgium more expensive than Britain?

Yes, I think so. But not by much. (I'd have to check prices to know for sure)

All I know it's much more expensive here than in the US.

I remember it being a topic on the news and they compared countries and Belgium was like the 15th most expensive country for gas while the US was at the 120th place. Oh and in Venezuela the gas is so cheap you can fill your tank for less than €1, lol.

[James]

Currently, the cheapest I've seen is €1.38/litre. The highest I've seen was in July and it was €1.59/litre.


According to Wikipeida, Sierra Leone has the world's highest petrol prices at about double the price in Britain.

[Sirgin]

I found that page aswell. HERE it is.

If you go down to the stats and let US$/gal go from high to low you'll find that the prices are:

in US$/gal:

Belgium: 9.39
UK: 8.67
US: 3.49

Heck, in that list Belgium is ranked 6th most expensive country for gas. So I don't want to see you Americans complain about gas prices anymore!

[NES_Rules]

So I don't want to see you Americans complain about gas prices anymore!

I don't know what the public transportation system near you is like, but it's pretty much non-existent in all but the biggest cities in the US. Even huge cities like LA have virtually none (I'm not sure if they have any, actually). And most American cities are spread out so there's not a lot in walking distance for the majority of them.

And, Americans are just stubborn, greedy, lazy complainers. And we don't really care about the rest of the world. It's pretty much the same reason we don't use the metric system.

[blcklblskt]

$3.03 near me (hey that rhymes )

[James]

So I don't want to see you Americans complain about gas prices anymore!

I don't know what the public transportation system near you is like, but it's pretty much non-existent in all but the biggest cities in the US. Even huge cities like LA have virtually none (I'm not sure if they have any, actually). And most American cities are spread out so there's not a lot in walking distance for the majority of them.

Haha, I knew someone would bring that up! Buses in my town are a flat rate of £1.60 one way or £3 return. When I was in New Zealand in August it was the equivalent of 75p to get all the way into town from nearly the outskirts. The nearest bus stop to me is a mile away and I'm hardly in a remote area. If you already have a car, it's cheaper and more convenient to drive.

I can't remember specific train prices but they keep going up above inflation every year and are never on time. I think my friend was saying he wanted to go to Edinburgh, about 400 miles away. By train it would cost £120 one way. By car it would cost £50-60 in petrol.

Don't think that because Britain isn't as big as America we don't travel. The average mileage per year for a British car is 12,000-15,000 miles, which I think is about the same as America.

[Sirgin]

Haha, I knew someone would bring that up! Buses in my town are a flat rate of £1.60 one way or £3 return. When I was in New Zealand in August it was the equivalent of 75p to get all the way into town from nearly the outskirts.

Busses cost €0.8 for one way and €1.6 return here. But prices can go up if you go through 3 or more "zones". I have a "Buzzy Pass" though, which costs €162. With that it costs me €0.4 per day to take as many busses as I want.

I can't remember specific train prices but they keep going up above inflation every year and are never on time. I think my friend was saying he wanted to go to Edinburgh, about 400 miles away. By train it would cost £120 one way. By car it would cost £50-60 in petrol.

We have the same problem here in Belgium. If you're a normal person and want to go from Brussel North to Leuven and back, it costs €9. And the ride is less than 20min!!!

It's pretty much the same reason we don't use the metric system.

Don't get me started on that.

There's so many advantages the metric system has, it's unbelievable you guys are still stuck with that old non-standardized crap. I don't want to offend any of you but, c'mon... Feet and inches? Gallons and ounces? Stones and pounds? It so difficult to calculate with those sizes. In the metric system everything is a multiple of 10, couldn't be more simple.

[NES_Rules]

Your public transportation may not be cheap or easy to use, but you at least have it. And I wasn't saying that's the only reason, it's just one of the many.

Also, I'm sure the average fuel efficiency is much higher for your cars. We're really just now starting to get into the smaller cars like you've had for decades.

It's pretty much the same reason we don't use the metric system.

Don't get me started on that.

There's so many advantages the metric system has, it's unbelievable you guys are still stuck with that old non-standardized crap. I don't want to offend any of you but, c'mon... Feet and inches? Gallons and ounces? Stones and pounds? It so difficult to calculate with those sizes. In the metric system everything is a multiple of 10, couldn't be more simple.

I agree with you, our system is terrible. It's just so hard to convince 300 million people to change their ways and not to mention expensive.

[Sirgin]

I agree with you, our system is terrible. It's just so hard to convince 300 million people to change their ways and not to mention expensive.

Yup, I know. Old, lazy, uninformed and mostly suspicious people is what keeps big reforms from happening everywhere around the world.

It's the same reason countries like Norway still have their own little currency instead of the Euro. A majority of people have to vote "yes" for it to happen, but somehow most people "don't want" the Euro there. I know this because me and my dad had an half hour chat about the Euro with a guy at a bank in Norway a couple of years ago. He said the whole Norwegian bank world would love to have the Euro but the population just keeps turning it down.

Sometimes I think it'd be for the good of the nation when decisions like that don't have to be approved by every single stupid citizen in a country but can be made on a higher level.

Even if it would take +/- 50 years for the metric system to be truly integrated in your society, it'd still be worth it. Believe me: rather a difficult, expensive transition to a good system than sticking with one that can't even be called a "system".

[Izret101]

The highest i saw gas driving back up here was about 3.90. It was at one of those gas stations that you had to turn off the highway to get to in the middle of nowhere. Drove another 20-30 miles down the road to a town and it dropped like 30 cents.
The cheapest i got was 3.12.

[captain_nintendo]

With oil dropping back to prices that are not so laughable... I fail to see why gas prices have not followed?

That's one industry that isn't losing money.

[Ghost Soldier]

Sitting at 3.29 this morning.

[James]

With oil dropping back to prices that are not so laughable... I fail to see why gas prices have not followed?

That's one industry that isn't losing money.

It takes time for crude oil to get to petrol pumps at the stations. If a petrol station buys their fuel for 10p/litre over 1000 litres (completely made up numbers) they would need to sell it before the next shipment comes in at 7p/litre. But it could take a couple of storage tanks before the average price of their stored petrol comes down enough to be able to drop the price for the end consumers.

[Izret101]

THe gas station i worked at prices arbitrarily went up and down.
It had nothing to do with when we got our deliveries.

If there was word of a gas crisis or some sort of holiday or fishing tourney or something coming up gas went up.

Going down was always what surprised me.

Anyways there is supposed to be some stations in western mass now that are back down to 2.99!!!

[logical123]

saw $3.599 today.

On the subject of Public Transportation, I can take the bus 3 miles for $0.75 (School to Home), which ends up costing less than my mom coming to pick me up, then driving me back. Granted, the bus is more convenient , and our main car only gets about 15MPG. I friggen hate that car. HATE HATE HATE that car.