Gas Protest!!!!

[elijahblake]

We need to start a website to help organize ways we can protest the gas prices.. We, the people of America, have gotten too lazy and dependant on the Gov't to solve all of our problems for us. Whatever happened to "They are few, but we are many"

Does anyone have suggestions, empty server space, web design skills that could help get this up and running...

Maybe call it "The Texas Tea Party" or whatever

Maybe we could pick 1 single chain of gas stations to use, creating competition in the gas prices..

Suggest that everyone only drives 55 on the interstates.. (lowering the demand and also bringing attention to the protest)

Put up protest signs on your cars (in legal, safe spots)

Bumper stickers

And when enough people are supporting maybe begin full protest demonstrations. (All being legal)

I'm sure there's many people on here that would support this cause because I know this is an issue that affects everyone, so feel free to suggest any and everything..

[cbrenthus]

All ready happening. You can only charge as much as people will pay. The biggest problem with gas is that we didn't use any less at $3 a gallon than we did at $1 a gallon. Maybe slightly, but we have finally started to really make an impact in gasoline demand, causing the prices to stabilize a little.

No amount of protesting, boycotting, or any thing else will have as much of an efffect on gas prices as us collectively using less.

BTW, I ride my bikes almost everywhere these days, and only use my Jeep when needed. And rain doesn't count

[Bobarino]

who are you going to protest? we only have ourselves to blame for high gas prices. America's gluttonous oil consumption and head-in-the-sand attitude for the last 50 years is just finally catching up with us. detriot's refusal to adopt new technologies until recently is just a sign of them giving the consumer what they want. if we demanded it, they would have produced it.

you're better off protesting by buying a Prius.

Bobby

[elijahblake]

how many people do you see slowing down on the interstates though? Maybe if we had stickers saying we are driving slow to conserve gas... I'm just looking for a way to get it organized and get the word out of ways to help us all..

[ZxHunteR]

I cant tell if you're a nut case or just tarded

[Woozy]

i get 55 mpg, i spend 10 bucks a week on gas. have a nice day.

[cbrenthus]

Originally Posted by elijahblake

how many people do you see slowing down on the interstates though?

Actually, I've noticed a huge slowdown on the roads lately. I can't say for sure about the interstates, but around town people are driving me crazy, and I'm not an aggressive driver.

[shadows090]

Seriously are you guys effin retarded? They proved that going 55 doesn't save any significant amount of fuel after the 80's crisis. And are you saying the gas stations are just charging that because they want to? They make less of a percent on every gallon of gas they sell. It's due to the price of oil, refinery, distribution, federal state local taxes etc. Everyone gets a very small piece of that $3. I'm sick of hearing these ignorant "protests" good luck. The price of gas is up because the price of oil is up. The gas stations make less of a profit margin than almost any other industry, and the companies have taken nearly a hundred years to even get to that point. Do research, stop bitching, and ride your bike more if you want to make a difference.

And before you complain about profits up, it's net profit. And that doesn't mean shit. What determins a well running business is profit MARGIN, look up the difference if you don't know.

[cbrenthus]

Originally Posted by Woozy

i get 55 mpg, i spend 10 bucks a week on gas. have a nice day.

I'll tell you what I would like to see: An organiztation that helps to promot 2 wheeled travel to help decreas the demand of gas. Some of the things I would like to see:

1. 2 wheeled vehicles being allowed to travel faster than 4 wheeled vehicles. I would say 5mph in residential areas and 10mph on highways and stuff. I think this would be safer for motorcycles as I feel much better going a little faster than traffic.

2. Motorcycle parking, Motorcycle parking, Motorcycle parking... I can't say it enough. I was actually turned away from a parking garage back in 2003 because they didn't allow motorcycles. The sad thing was they could fit dozens of bikes in the corners where they couldn't park cars anyways. Not to mention that motorcycle parking could become a revenue generator for local governments by giving the police authority to ticket cars in motorcycle spots much like handicap spots.

3. Maybe a tax benefit if you buy a bike?

I could probably come up with more, but I think 1 and 2 would be huge alone!

[cbrenthus]

Originally Posted by shadows090

And before you complain about profits up, it's net profit. And that doesn't mean shit. What determins a well running business is profit MARGIN, look up the difference if you don't know.

I posted in another thread that I found that oil companies get about $.23 a gallon when you buy gas. That's the gross, and has to cover their costs of refining. I don't know what the net is.

However, the government gets about $.45 a gallon, and that is all net. They don't make the gas, or transport it, or anything.

[shadows090]

Originally Posted by cbrenthus

I'll tell you what I would like to see: An organiztation that helps to promot 2 wheeled travel to help decreas the demand of gas. Some of the things I would like to see:

1. 2 wheeled vehicles being allowed to travel faster than 4 wheeled vehicles. I would say 5mph in residential areas and 10mph on highways and stuff. I think this would be safer for motorcycles as I feel much better going a little faster than traffic.

2. Motorcycle parking, Motorcycle parking, Motorcycle parking... I can't say it enough. I was actually turned away from a parking garage back in 2003 because they didn't allow motorcycles. The sad thing was they could fit dozens of bikes in the corners where they couldn't park cars anyways. Not to mention that motorcycle parking could become a revenue generator for local governments by giving the police authority to ticket cars in motorcycle spots much like handicap spots.

3. Maybe a tax benefit if you buy a bike?

I could probably come up with more, but I think 1 and 2 would be huge alone!

I would love to see that as well. I think that people may naturally be going in the direction of buying a motorcycle just as an effect of gas. I think that it's a great opportunity to become a motorcycle mechanic, or buy stocks in companies that deal with motorcycles, etc. As the economy gets worse due to gas, motorcycles and low price retailers will be nearly the only markets improving. A tax benefit for riding would be awesome. I'd also like to see government funded MSF course, now that it's mandatory in my state of Florida.

[elijahblake]

Originally Posted by cbrenthus

I'll tell you what I would like to see: An organiztation that helps to promot 2 wheeled travel to help decreas the demand of gas. Some of the things I would like to see:

1. 2 wheeled vehicles being allowed to travel faster than 4 wheeled vehicles. I would say 5mph in residential areas and 10mph on highways and stuff. I think this would be safer for motorcycles as I feel much better going a little faster than traffic.

2. Motorcycle parking, Motorcycle parking, Motorcycle parking... I can't say it enough. I was actually turned away from a parking garage back in 2003 because they didn't allow motorcycles. The sad thing was they could fit dozens of bikes in the corners where they couldn't park cars anyways. Not to mention that motorcycle parking could become a revenue generator for local governments by giving the police authority to ticket cars in motorcycle spots much like handicap spots.

3. Maybe a tax benefit if you buy a bike?

I could probably come up with more, but I think 1 and 2 would be huge alone!

well, there you go... hey it's a start. See if we had a way to start petitions and get our voice to congress, then maybe we could make a difference.


And yes, i know why the price at the pump is up. But if you're going to try and tell me that if there are two stores side by side and NOBODY went to store A everyone went to store B. Then store A would have to do something to get business. I've seen it happen with my own eyes. So you can't tell me that it can't work.

[shadows090]

Originally Posted by cbrenthus

I posted in another thread that I found that oil companies get about $.23 a gallon when you buy gas. That's the gross, and has to cover their costs of refining. I don't know what the net is.

However, the government gets about $.45 a gallon, and that is all net. They don't make the gas, or transport it, or anything.

The government uses the gasoline tax to fix roads. Federal taxes go towards interstate. In california they made cars have a better overall mpg, then realized that they weren't getting state taxes necessary to fix their roads and had to double the state gasoline tax as a resort. The idea behind a gasoline tax is pretty simple. The more gas you use, the more likely you are to cause more damage to roads (larger vehicle).

My personal idea is that we should have a recessive gasoline tax. Currently it is a static percentage the government makes. I feel that's unnecessary and it should be slightly recessive. Therefore the government doesn't get a huge gain or loss when gas taxes fluctate, as they should need a nearly static amount to pay workers for repairs.

EDIT: The reason that one store may be a few cents lower is they have to haggle to get a lower base price on gasoline. For 99% of gas stations, if they lowered their price at the pump by 3 cents, they literally would make zero profit, and would be making negative profit margin.

[cbrenthus]

Originally Posted by shadows090

The government uses the gasoline tax to fix roads. Federal taxes go towards interstate. In california they made cars have a better overall mpg, then realized that they weren't getting state taxes necessary to fix their roads and had to double the state gasoline tax as a resort. The idea behind a gasoline tax is pretty simple. The more gas you use, the more likely you are to cause more damage to roads (larger vehicle).

Well, that is true.

Still, I don't like seeing the government pointing fingers at oil companies when they colllect less than the taxes on the gas.

I also wouldn't be surprised if one of the reasons for record profit is the fact that gas refineries haven't been allowed to expand for so long. So there loans from building 40 years ago are paid off and there isn't anything to put money into. Whereas if they could build more refineries, than they would be putting some of the money back into producing gasoline. I don't know this for sure, just theory on my part.

[baron4406]

The oil companies DO get huge tax subsidies from the federal government, on top of their record profits BTW.

Lets face it oil is dead. Unless this country get crankin on Methanol (which can be made from anything practically) we'll all be walking soon. Ethanol is a joke.