British Expatriate Network

Once again it is a joy to drive around the valley. Hardly any cars, save the odd few miniscule women in 8 seater SUVs on school runs.
It has brought home, however, just how close to the edge people here live. They get a house, plunder the credit of it (can't remember the correct term) and end up in foreclosure. It's unreal how many houses are for sale here, a lot on the foreclosure auction block.
Oddly enough some subsidised housing, ie the adjacent street, has turned out to be one of the prettiest streets, multi-ethnic, all well kept and loved houses, whereas our street has some long empty houses with owners living in other states. With the drought we now have I can't wait to see their faces when they get their water bills. They leave the sprinklers connected and must be clocking up a fortune.

Hadn't noticed but you could be right.

I bought a new car this week and got a real bargain from a dealership - huge thing with a 5.7 liter engine because they aren't moving them any more. I don't do a lot of miles so it doesn't bother me and I got it more for fun than economy.

But I do hear people complaining all the time about gas prices and "threatening" to drive less. Works for me if they stay off the roads

I'll be driving to the mall a lot less, but my daughter will be driving so I don't think it's going to save me much. She chose an Explorer over my car, but I'm down-sizing because it's hard to park at work sometimes.

I could be wrong, but I think a bunch of drunks painted the parking spaces in our multi storey.

I live in the DC area, you could take 10% of the cars off the road and still not notice the difference. Well, that's unfair, you might get above 10mph for 40 seconds instead of 35

Personally I take the commuter train, always have and I have noticed that that is getting busier - I'm no longer the only vehicle on the 3rd floor of the parking garage. But Metro put their prices up to so that could have something to do with it. Either way, we fill up about once a month unless we take a trip anywhere so it's not hurting too much, I just wince a little when I see the final sale on the pump.

i used to live in vienna VA and it took me half a hour to drive to tysons corner shopping center which was 5 miles away , now i can go from austin to san antonio 83 miles in almost the same time .

The folks at the city meeting last tuesday were complaining about the cost of gas , looking at the parking lot it was filled mostly with SUV and trucks, mine being one of the few small size saloons parked there.

americans have themselves to blame for the oil crisis.
large gas gusling cars and laziness .
iv seen a suv cruise the parking lot of our local grocery store for 10 mins looking for a parking space in the first 4 rows so they dont have to hawl their fat arses 100 yards across the parking lot .

same folks who mouth of about global warming and green environment yet do nothing to restrict there own polution

Can't say I've noticed any less traffic. I don't drive a gas guzzler and don't have to do a lot of miles these days.

I'm more worried about the cost of heating my house this winter. Home heating oil is currently @ $4.60 a gallon and it's only June!

Jan

I have indeed noticed less movement of cars around here, especially at weekends. Usually the main roads are chockablock on Saturdays, but not this past weekend - it was like a weekday when everyone is at work or school.

Annie, perhaps you're just noticing it because all the kids are on summer vacation, therefore families have gone on vacation too?

I haven't really noticed, but then I just got back from two weeks vacation, in the UK & France where, despite $8-$9 a gallon fuel, doesn't seem to deter all the lemmings on the M25. Central London & Cambridge are pretty much reduced to buses, taxis and Mercedes since park and ride in Cambridge & Congestion charges in London.

For myself, I get 30mpg which is good for the USA and I only drive to work three days a week. I do think more about using my car now. People at work just seem to grumble but aren't trading in their trucks and SUV's just yet.

What kind of car did you get Pilgrim?

Cannot say I have really noticed the difference, but have made economies with the price of everything going up and the possibility of one of us losing our jobs due to the economy going down the toilet. We got rid of everything in a storage unit, cancelled our tv service, cancelled my daughters cell phone and have switched off the heating and a/c. So far we have saved about $400 a month.

Chrysler 300C - someone panic-dumped it as a trade-in and the dealer wanted rid of it. It's averaging about 17.5 mpg for me so only 3-4 mpg worse than the 3.4 I traded it in for.

I figure when the oil runs out, anyone with a gasoline engine is screwed anyway so this was possibly a last hurrah

I completely agree so I bought TWO 2008 GTI's....yummy ! I managed to get my first speeding ticket inside a week.

As a truck driver, there is no considerable difference I have found with the amount of traffic on the roads.

Sounds logical now you have saved $400 pinching and scraping.

Yes, I know...we are idiots !