$271 gas tax burden for every man, woman, and child in US

[prospero63]

According to the US 2000 census 79.219 of USAers live in Urban Clusters of 2,500 or more. 68.274 live in urban clusters of 50,000 or more.

http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/planning/census/cps2k.htm

Still, around 59 million USAers live in rural areas. The current population of the UK is roughly 60 million ( http://www.statistics.gov.uk/CCI/nugget.asp?ID=6 ) from what I can gather.

joe b.

Interesting. Color me corrected.

 

[kenobi65]

According to the US 2000 census 79.219 of USAers live in Urban Clusters of 2,500 or more. 68.274 live in urban clusters of 50,000 or more.

Thanks. I was trying to pull that kind of factoid out of my butt when I originally posted, but my google-fu has been weakened by the cold I picked up at Origins.

 

[Treebore]

I don't know about the other 59 million urban living americans, but I have to drive 2 miles to my town which has a hardware store, a feed store, and a grocery store. All a bit overpriced in comparison to Walmart, Lowes, HomeDepot, etc... Until I factor in I have to drive 56 miles round trip to go to Walmart and 112 miles round trip to go to a Lowes or Home Depot. In a vehicle that gets only 15.1 miles to the gallon.

All of a sudden those higher local prices don't look so bad. Except for my monthly grocery shopping. That saves me around $400 to go buy at the base commissary over the local store or the Walmart Superstore 29 miles away. Even with the commissary being over 58 miles away and about 70 minutes of driving in each direction.

There are a lot of perks about city living that I miss, but there are a lot of drawbacks about city living that easily off sets those perks.

So I am glad to live where I do.

Which is:

Treebore's Home on the AZ range

 

[Darth K'Trava]

I drive only 4 miles to work but I have friends who drive 30 miles or so each way. However, I do have to drive about 15 miles to go game and about the same if I want to see a movie in a good theater. The one in town is meh, IMO. NC has a fairly high gas tax (after they practically doubled it a couple years ago to raise revenue) compared with SC.

 

[Numion]

I wouldn't use the word "laughing". More like "staring in amazement".

Let's see, my local petrol station charges 93p per litre (and that's cheap!). I believe, after litre to gallons and pounds to dollars, that comes to $7 per gallon. BTW, over 70% of that is tax.

Yup, last I counted it came to 7,1 USD/gallon. And I have my first car on order, feels great.

 

[Relique du Madde]

Oh, and the Europeans on the boards are all probably laughing at our gripes on the subject - they pay lots more, last I checked.

True, but then you also have to ask yourself, who tends to uses more fuel, the average European or the Average American (who tends to buy larger and less fuel economic cars/trucks)?

 

[Thunderfoot]

I've heard that the main difference between American and British thinking is that Americans think 200 years is a long time, and Brits think 200 miles is a long ways.

Bullgrit

Total Bullgrit

As an American that lived in Europe for three years, I would say this is just about right.

One of the reasons that the US had prisoner of War camps in the midwest during WWII was that the long train ride for the German soldiers demoralized them and made them realize there was no where to run to if they escaped. If you traveled that far in Europe you would have crossed at least 5 national boundries and had to speak no less than three languages.

Meanwhile our 'long and glorious' history as a nation doesn't even scratch the surface of most European national histories, heck ever hear of the Hundred Years war? Frankly we are a nation of 'teenagers' by comparison. Our taxes are more than fair in light of our European comrades and our public transportation system is about three light years behind, so it all comes out in the wash.