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Impact of Higher Gas Prices

Posted by Glenn on September 6, 2005 - 9:01pm in The Oil Drum: Local

From today's NY Times, it seems that even a city boasting the largest mass transit system in the nation is suffering under the effects of three dollar (or more) a gallon gasoline.

Many businesses are passing on the costs to their customers, like a messenger service that doubled it's rates from NJ to Manhattan. A friend told me last week that delivery of a rocking chair she was giving to a friend cost $80 more in the suburbs than NYC, because they couldn't save fuel and combine deliveries.

Some interesting stats on how dependent NYC is on gas:
  • Drivers in New York State may pay an extra $600 million a month in fuel costs, based on $3.25 a gallon for unleaded regular gas, according to an estimate by Senator Charles E. Schumer. If such prices persist for a year, he said, it will cost residents $7.2 billion - $1 billion in New York City alone.
  • MTA fuels 5,000 buses everyday - estimated a $119m fuel bill for 2005 based on a price of $2.40/gallon
  • Department of Education - with 6,100 buses carrying nearly 200,000 schoolchildren

Of course higher costs means either higher taxes or less service or trade-offs with other budget items. Or for heaven's sake, perhaps we could actually start finding ways of conserving fuel and lowering our gas bill through less consumption!

Impact of Higher Gas Prices

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