Ben’s Weblog

Looks like parts of the US have caught up to western Europe in terms of gas prices - from today’s Chicago Tribune, a picture of a gas station in Georgia:

Coincidentally, these are almost the exact same as the gas prices in Germany a couple of weeks ago.

(good thing we filled up our cars at CostCo for $2.739/gallon on Tuesday)

While I’m sure this certainly puts a big pinch on lower-income families, I think that this could ultimately be a blessing in disguise. If gas is more expensive, it makes suburban sprawl less likely, cuts down on gas-guzzling SUVs, encourages development of hybrid/alternate-fuel cars, encourages people to walk more, bike more, use more public transit, etc. In short, it’ll give us some of the benefits of the European lifestyle (but hopefully not the European taxes!)

. o (now if we could only drive as well as Germans and get autobahn-grade interstates)

It was great in Fallingbostel - every night, we’d walk to dinner from the hotel, walk to the store if you wanted to grab a snack, walk to the bar to have a beer, etc. I ate/drank significantly more than I usually do back home, yet I dropped 2 lbs in each of my 1.5-2 week trips.