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Petrol Prices (1 Viewer)

yenta

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My thoughts: stop complaining about the price of petrol, pretty soon there'll be no petrol anyway and then we'll all be fucked, unless someone can, quickly, come up with a car that uses something else as fuel and still costs around the same (they've made a car which runs on water?? but i bet it would be very expensive). And to all of you who drive 4WDs just for the sake of thinking you're better and safer than everyone else, and never go off-road, and are thereby wasting the world's petrol for your stupid unnecessary vehicle, i hope you burn in hell. :)

So I think in a way higher petrol prices are good, for the long-term anyway, as it means moer people might turn to other transport methods which will keep us from running out of oil for a little longer

On the other hand, expensive petrol sucks cos in order to drive there's no choice but to buy it, they could charge say $3 a litre and ppl will still buy it because they have to.

To the government, either
a) reduce thetax. find your money elsewhere
or
b) fucking fix public transport up. Sydney's trains are so below par it's not funny. No wonder everyone drives
 

Slidey

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The two foreseeable sources of fuel for cars in the future are:
1) Photovoltaic cells
2) Fuel cells

Photovoltaic cells are solar cells, essentially. They should benefit immensely from nanotechnology.

Fuel cells typically involve the burning of hydrogen (most abundent element in the universe). The problem is in liberating the hydrogen from things like air, water (hell, hydrogen is the main constituent of oil). So, yes, these are expensive for now.
 

jebbie

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This has probably been said somewhere, or people might already know but I feel like sharing so shut up and listen <3
When the idea of a car was being created and what fuel source would be used there were two options. One was a car that run on petrol and was cheaper for that time but costs su so much more orone was that run off air. Like carbondioxide or something like that. And it had clean waste too. Trust them to pick the temporarially cheaper option. :rolleyes:
 

Slidey

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I see. And where did you hear this?
 

Abbeygale

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Fuel prices don't affect me much, because $8 fills my Vespa and lasts me 2 weeks.
My grandparents and father live in isolated areas, and in that situation there really aren't any options aside from private cars.
But people are so wasteful in Newcastle. Sometimes at the traffic lights I count the people in the five seater cars. Only about 1/5 of them are carrying more than one person.
 

Rorix

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The federal government isn't responsible for public transport.
 

BrenKHS

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Wide-spread use of ethanol requires very large areas of land to be cleared. This has problems of its own.

Oil is probably going to run out within 15 years. Its crazy that our economy is dependant on something that is non-renewable, the government knows its running out but does nothing to change the way our economy operates.

The most purchased car last year was the Toyota Echo, hardly a fuel thirsty car.

The one upside to fuel prices going through the roof is that people might actually ride a bike to work. There are too many lard arses around and bikes don't pollute the environment.
 

iamsickofyear12

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BrenKHS said:
The one upside to fuel prices going through the roof is that people might actually ride a bike to work. There are too many lard arses around and bikes don't pollute the environment.
It's easy to say 'ride a bike to work', 'walk', 'take public transport' but in reality it isn't like that.
 

Rorix

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iamsickofyear12 said:
It's easy to say 'ride a bike to work', 'walk', 'take public transport' but in reality it isn't like that.

The average speed on a bike would be roughly approximate to peak hour traffic.


(as an estimate with no empirical basis)
 

mervvyn

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Cheaper fuel prices in Queensland are more related to their state govt subsidy than anything else.

The thing to consider with fuel prices is a demand/consumption factor. While higher prices are unpopular (with good reason) they are benefical in that people have to appreciate the cost of their energy more - you don't use something as thoughtlessly if it's more expensive (not that uni is thoughtless - far from it, i mean more like inner city travel which could be offloaded onto public transport if it wasn't so bad). However, two catches exist: people for whom other options aren't viable and places with shocking public transport. While subsidies and new investment in infrastructure could help, they aren't a short term soluton. Bah.

EDIT: forgot to read the 2nd page, people have already said what I did. Ethanol is clean, but you need more for the same distance and it burns more explosively (thus putting an upper limit of eth conc for unmodded vehicles).
I imagine car companies are pretty interested in new sorts of cars - as petrol becomes more expensive and eventually disappears, everyone will have to get one! On the other hand, the petrol companies will want to squeeze oil prices for as long as possible, aided by increased demand but fairly constant supply and a lack of significant extra production capacity.
 
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BrenKHS

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It is if your not in trade or anything that requires alot of stuff to be moved.
 

Rorix

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BrenKHS said:
It is if your not in trade or anything that requires alot of stuff to be moved.
Obviously.
 

iamsickofyear12

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Rorix said:
The average speed on a bike would be roughly approximate to peak hour traffic.


(as an estimate with no empirical basis)
Well lets consider me. My work involves my car, so I need it anyway but assuming that I didn't there is not much traffic so it would matter.
 

Rorix

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iamsickofyear12 said:
Well lets consider me. My work involves my car, so I need it anyway but assuming that I didn't there is not much traffic so it would matter.

So does mine.

However, I'm not complaining about fuel prices.

You can also claim your work travel expenses off tax.


If it didn't, a bike has other benefits such as health, fitness, muscular development and so on.

It's really simple - if the price for petrol was actually too high, you'd buy less of it.
 

spell check

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Rorix said:
So does mine.

However, I'm not complaining about fuel prices.

You can also claim your work travel expenses off tax.


If it didn't, a bike has other benefits such as health, fitness, muscular development and so on.

It's really simple - if the price for petrol was actually too high, you'd buy less of it.
some people don't have the endurance to cycle 20 kilometres to and from work each day, regardless of how long it takes them in peak hour traffic

and the people hit hardest with high petrol prices will be those who have to travel a long distance each day
 

Rorix

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spell check said:
some people don't have the endurance to cycle 20 kilometres to and from work each day, regardless of how long it takes them in peak hour traffic

I do believe I listed fitness as a benefit.

and the people hit hardest with high petrol prices will be those who have to travel a long distance each day
Anyone who knowingly lives an irrationally long distance from their permanent employment can't just blame the government for their shortcomings.



THE MARKET SYSTEM WORKS GUYS
IF ITS TOO EXPENSIVE
STOP BUYING IT
 

Korn

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iamsickofyear12 said:
I paid $1.16 this week, highest I saw was $1.19. This is costing everyone a lot of money, and obviously people aren't happy about it.

But my question is, when are people going to start getting pissed off at the government. Because although oil prices are high, it's mainly the governments fault because they continue to tax the shit out of petrol.

And it's not about the revenue either, there are other ways for the government to make money.
Quit complaining we have fairly low petrol prices compared to other countries, and u could always catch public transport or walk
 

pete_mate

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Korn said:
Quit complaining we have fairly low petrol prices compared to other countries, and u could always catch public transport or walk
no we dont, US has half the price,

maybe in sweden its more expensive, but everything else is there too

Rorix said:
THE MARKET SYSTEM WORKS GUYS
IF ITS TOO EXPENSIVE
STOP BUYING IT
no it doesnt, there are supply constraints here, unlike the self-correcting measure of other markets where quantity of supply increases as price does, lowering price
 
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Korn

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pete_mate said:
no we dont, US has half the price,

maybe in sweden its more expensive, but everything else is there too



no it doesnt, there are supply constraints here, unlike the self-correcting measure of other markets where quantity of supply increases as price does, lowering price
Yeah the US is about the cheapest in the world but they have petrol for about 50-60c
 

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