Europeans and others aren't paying any more for a barrel of oil than we are. And assuming that refining costs and distribution are probably about the same, the differences in cost are mostly due to higher taxes. You can verify this at numerous sites on the web. My attendance at SLAS events changed when I moved to Sanpete six years ago. Gas prices and time are the factors, as you would suspect. A trip to downtown SLC is 100 miles and about one hour and 45 minutes one way. Round trip cost just in gas is now nearly $40. At $0.50/mile to operate an average vehicle, actual cost is $100. So, I'm afraid I'll be seeing even less of all of my friends "up north" (all of you included). That said, I'll be thinking of you all when I have to drag my scope to my dark site, two miles out of town. Here's a shot of the Milky Way taken from that site: http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=3769. ;-) Kim _____ From: utah-astronomy-bounces@mailman.xmission.com [mailto:utah-astronomy-bounces@mailman.xmission.com] On Behalf Of erikhansen@thebluezone.net Sent: Saturday, April 23, 2011 9:59 AM To: Utah Astronomy Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Will the cost of gas change your dark sitevisits or your attendance at outreach events?
The most likely impact will be how much public shows up for our Star Parties. How much public went to Wheeler last night? Seemed like a decent night for planets and double stars.
Europe does have an extensive mass transit system so you can do well without a car. Hi list,
After this thread wound down I joined a similar thread on one of the international pro-am astronomy lists I'm on.
As I suspected the folks overseas (France $8, Italy $9) don't have a lot of sympathy for our "high" prices here in the US (though I found it refreshing that they put their feelings very diplomatically <g>).
One aspect I had not considered was the lower wages in many of those countries compounding the effects of their truly high fuel prices. I thought that was expressed well in this I received yesterday that may help some of us feel better (and maybe a bit guilty) about our lot.
+++++ I remember that numerous conversations with my friends about gas prices often ended with "Oh those Americans" :)
But let's just stay on the statistical side. I live where a gallon of petrol costs about $7.24 per gallon. In 2005 a gallon was about $4 and that price was constant from late 90's until 2006, when it started to rise (peaked in 2008). But you must look at this in a different light. Average monthly salary is about $1000. Now compare that to the average salary in the US.
So if you want go get from place where I live to seaside (which has became quite popular in the last years) by highway and back (including all tolls), that will set you back about 1/3 of your monthly salary. If you ask me, that's a lot for a 800km trip. +++++
Suddenly the cost of my trip from Stansbury to Wheeler this evening didn't seem so bad.
patrick
On 09 Mar 2011, at 23:21, Jay Eads wrote:
Your not alone Patrick. I keep little notebooks that track miles, gallons purchased, mpg, and the date of the fill up or of any repair. Something I learned from my Dad.
Sent from my iPod
On Mar 9, 2011, at 11:18 PM, Patrick Wiggins <paw@wirelessbeehive.com> wrote:
Ok, this is going to expose me as the true obsessive-compulsive numbers nut that I am, but I actually have kept track of every cent I've spent on my truck since I drove it off the Wagstaff Toyota lot back in 1995. This includes purchase price, taxes, yearly registration fees, property taxes, fuel, maintenance (including the occasional turn signal light bulb) and even cleaning.
As of 31 December 2010 I had put 275,946 miles on it and had spent a total of $47,163.94 which works out to a touch over 17 cents per mile. Looking at just 2010 the cost was 25.25 cents per 2010 mile.
Not a bad investment and, considering it's age, not a terribly expensive vehicle to drive to star parties.
'Course it's got a ways to go before catching up with my first Toyota that had over 400,000 on the odometer at trade in time.
Clear skies,
patrick
On 09 Mar 2011, at 18:03, daniel turner wrote:
You need to put the cost of fuel into perspective.
When the gas prices spiced back in 2008 I took the price I paid for the vehicle and subtracted the current resale price and divided by the miles driven so far and came up with a cost of about 20 cents a mile.
I had paid cash so there was no interest, but I didn't consider tax, registration and mantenance costs, just the depreciation.
Currently gas is costing me about 20 cents a mile so the price of fuel is less than half the total cost of ownership.
Next time I will buy a used car to cut down on the depreciation cost. That's where the big cost is in owning a vehicle.
Or you could do like Patrick does. His truck was bought new when Reagan was still president. His depreciation cost per mile should be realy low.
DT
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