Gothamist: NYC Gas Prices Still High

NannyState

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 22:58:14 -0500

Here goes: The retailers ate a lot of margin when oil prices were up over $145 a barrel. They're making up for all that lost revenue now. The branded retailers are the worst and their prices drop the slowest. Non-branded gas stations can afford to charge less and often need to just to stay alive. New York, with its high real estate costs and lack of competition has about the same gas environment as San Francisco where gas stations broke the $5 mark. At the end of the day, live in Georgia or Wyoming if you want to pay less at the pump. Otherwise, lose the fucking car already!

Future Taliban

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 21:10:25 -0500

cwbuecheler

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 11:25:42 -0500

@Politburo - "Tech exists" and "tech has been refined enough to be financially viable" are two very different things. Europe has been as complacent as the US about not demanding improvements from auto makers, and just dealing with the cost of gas. The way technology works is: stuff starts out expensive, but as people push adoption rates up, the process gets refined and the price comes down. This is why I once paid $320 for 4 MB of RAM, and now I can buy 4 GB for a couple hundred bucks or less. No one pushed for better tech - they were more worried about adding cup holders. Now fuel-efficient technology is still prohibitively expensive. I'm not excusing myself of this. I was happily driving Japanese imports that only got 30 MPG for all of the 90s, when I could've paid a few grand more and been on the early edge of the hybrid movement (to pick one example of fuel efficiency tech). Coulda, shoulda, woulda, but I didn't. You reap what you sow. -- cdebris.com --

Politburo

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 11:03:54 -0500

"There is no excuse for not having cars available that get 70, 80, or even 100 miles to the gallon. " Then why doesn't Europe have a 100 mpg car? According to you, the technology already exists.

IvoryJive

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 11:01:03 -0500

This may be news to you glennQ, but the New Yorker printed this week that "according to the latest figures from the Federal Highway Administration, during the first five months of this year Americans drove thirty billion fewer miles than they did during the same period last year." Looks like people don't have to drive as much they had been. And for anyone who depends on fuel/vehicles to make a living - if a 33% increase in fuel costs is threatening your livelihood, I strongly advise you heed the warnings of the last 40 years: this resources will run out soon and cannot be consumed at current rates.

cwbuecheler

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 10:41:03 -0500

I'm kind of tired of hearing people bitch about gas prices. We pay about half as much for a gallon as everyone in Europe pays for a liter! Woe unto us ... Yes, I'm aware that America is very large and more auto-centric than Europe, but you know what? Sometimes things change and adaptation has to occur. There is no excuse for not having cars available that get 70, 80, or even 100 miles to the gallon. The tech exists, it's just that all R&D into that area been actively fought by the oil companies. Christ, we could and should have fuel cells by now. We shouldn't be using petroleum for basic automotive power at all. So now it's expensive. We sat on our asses and didn't demand improvements in the 80s and 90s, and it's come back to hit our wallets. Tough shit. -- cdebris.com --

glennQNYC

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 10:20:25 -0500

This may be a foreign concept to you ianmac, but many people need fuel/vehicles to make a living. Not everyone works in an office.

Outter Burrougher

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 10:20:21 -0500

glenn makes very good points re: traffic and toll charges, and the post itself points to the various taxes, but it also has to do with the fact that there are fewer options. You want cheap(er) gas, then you have to live in a place that involves cheap transportation of gasoline from refineries and has relatively low overhead for the gas stations. It's all a trade-off.

Politburo

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 10:18:29 -0500

You rarely see a new gas station.. the idea that real estate prices have an effect here is dubious. And really, same goes for traffic and tolls. They have not significantly changed in the past few years (and even a $20.00 toll increase is only $0.003/gal when you spread it across a 6,000 gallon tanker load). I'm not sure why you've ignored the most obvious factor: fuel prices. You have to use gas to move gas.

ianmac47

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 10:12:15 -0500

Well if prices are "too high," people can simply stop buying gas, or buy less of it.

glennQNYC

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 10:00:18 -0500

High tax rates and high real estate prices are probably the biggest culprits. But the choking off/"calming" of vehicular traffic (the fuel doesn't get to the pump via the MTA guys), and excessive toll charges are a factors not to be dismissed.

whitecastlerock

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 09:55:09 -0500

These fucking gas stations were out there changing the numbers as quickly as they could when the prices were rising... They were backordering the number 4 and 5 for the displays. I guess the 3s were thrown away.

jersy

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 09:47:18 -0500

^ captive. Not cative.

jersy

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 09:46:20 -0500

I paid $3.51 in no-wheres-ville Ohio this Saturday. It is a cative audience in NYC, and they know it. They are always quick to raise and slow to lower, sounds like price fixing to me.

edEx

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 09:45:45 -0500

greed

whitecastlerock

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 09:40:05 -0500

What a band of thieves. Always has been like this. The filthy gas station on west 96th street off Broadway has always been 25¢ more a gallon. Supply and demand my eyeball. Out in Long Island it was $3.95 a gallon... Thank god I can take the railroad to work

twakum

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 09:34:17 -0500

its under $4.00 out on LI. Can you say "Distributors hosing a captive audience?" Its why you pay $2.69 for half and half at Food Emporium, when Waldbaums on LI charges $1.69 for the same damn thing. And they are owned by the same company.

MT

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 09:15:14 -0500

It didn't take any time at all for high prices to work themselves into the system . . .

mattcarman

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 09:13:52 -0500

Suppy and Demand: This Fall on ABC Family.

Kojak

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 09:09:26 -0500

Lower prices for Oil take their time to work through the system. They'll come down eventually. But for now, suck it up and drive less anyway even if prices start coming down. Prices are coming down since demand is falling, so guess what happens when you start driving more... Ahh the wonders of Suppy and Demand