When I brought my car 5 years ago it cost me $15 to fill it up with gas. Last week I paid $40. But you know what, I'm not going to bitch and complain about it.
I hear people all the time complain about how high the gas is and how messed up paying $4 a gallon is, and I agree it is messed up. But my co-worker from Dallas pretty much summed up the whole gas "crisis". He said, "...until gas prices get to a place where middle class people have to choose between gas and eating, the government will not do anything about it and people will deal with it. Besides, most of the people who are complaining are still taking summer vacations." We are consumers!
Saudi Arabia (the oil gods) just said yesterday that they would increase production of oil to meet the demand of the US, China, and India. This increase in production should help the cost of gas go down a whopping $0.10 per gallon!!!! Thank You Saudi Arabia!!! What would we do without you?!
Brown Tip:
Stop Bitchin and take metro!
I know y'all, metro is the worst. They are always late, broken, and completely unreliable. But you know what, I take metro to work everyday and I only have to fill my car up every 2 weeks! Taking metro helps to save gas and reduce CO2 emissions (this is an environmental blog after all). And if you work for the government, they give you metro checks which, if you are creative, you can flip for more money!
10 comments:
WHATEVA!
Bitchfest Starts here: Metro - I hate it!
Why should I stand up an hour and smell people Co2 that they exhale? If the Metro was actually thought out and planned for a growing population I would consider it but as it stands now....I'll just continue to yell at the pump everytime I stop to use it.....Insert sigh here... (SIGH)
I'm a daily metro-er, but I don't think the bitching will stop...sometimes I just like to bitch! But At least I can bitch & take the metro. It is the least I can do...while sitting in between stations because there is a train stopped directly in front of us with a sick passenger..........
I'ma need metro to finish that "purple" line first. For those that work in MoCo but live in PG, metro is a pain. Going all the way into the city, just to come out on the other side...it just takes so long. Just as long as driving for real and driving has less drama attached to it and I get to sit! lol
I don't get metro checks, so stop showing off. But I do go back and forth between taking the train and walking to work, and it is VERY relaxing.
There needs to be a seperation here of what Metro can and can't do.. 1. The Purple Line has nothing to do with Metro right now - the state of Maryland is building it and may run it. 2. If you had a medical emergency on a train, would you want Metro to stop the train so medical personnel can get to you to save your life? Ok, save someones life vs. make someone late 5 mins - what would you do? 3. In a perfect world where money wasn't an issue, you would plan and prepare for anything and everything that could possibly occur. Problem is, the system 30 years old. As the Washington Post has reported, unlike New York, Chicago, LA, and other systems in the country, Metro doesn't have a dedicated source of funds. Money for repairs and improvements has to be approved each year. How can anyone plan that way? Just like the Silver and Purple lines, Metro does not plan or build the extensions.
Sorry for the rant, but I love Metro. Yes it can be much better than what it is right now, but paying attention to media coverage and the metro board meetings, I can appreciate why things are the way they are....
Phil
I really dont care about the reasons the metro is wack because honestly I understand. One of my best friends is a top official at metro so the reasons are a moot point to me. I'm bitching on the INCONVIENCE the metro is. Like the brown thumb said "when i have to make a decision on wether to drive or eat then I will suck it up and take the metro.....but I wont stop bitchin about it.
Great comments. The biggest problem is the lack of dedicated federal funding for metro. I think they are trying with what they have. When you think about it, if metro stops running, the entire government would probably shut down. That should be enough to get dedicated federal funding.
~kawana
I am really trying this summer to be good and ride the Metro...but somehow even though the Feds give me Metrochecks it has cost me more to ride the metro than it would have cost me to just drive. This is because I had to pay for parking at the metro when I didn't manage to catch the bus and I had to pay a cab fare one day when I was trying to go home after the bus stopped running. But I've saved on CO2 emissions. So I guess there's an upside. I live relatively close to work so the metro only cuts my commute in half if I don't ride the bus first. But riding the bus doubles the length of my commute. Maybe I just need to try working from home. Okay done b*tching.
metro just isnt built for the amount of folks who already take it 8 of the 10 record ridership days of all time occurred this year.
Metro could foster several express bus lanes to criss cross the city on dedicated roads, but folks woulndt like that at all..
I guess the most viable way is to live near you job, but with the advent of the highway and the cottage-cheese and hummus eating "new urbanites", that's not always an option lol
I think we all have some sob stories about metro, but overall, it's somewhat getting the job done. One of the things I loved most about moving to DC to work is the metro system- where I grew up you couldn't wait to get your license because that was the only way you were getting anywhere! Now, I've become a seasoned metro rider, and we have a deep love/hate relationship. For all of the complaining I do about metro, I still appreciate the fact that I'm not sitting in traffic everyday too and from work...and I'm not burning up the $55 it now takes me to fill up my tank (up from around $25)!
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