Well, the oil crisis has now come to this - more and more people in the UK are running out of petrol. Britannia Rescue says rising fuel prices have led to 340,000 drivers running out of fuel in the three months to July 2008, a jump of 10% over the previous year. In the USA, there's been a 34% increase in similar incidents as more and more people put off buying gas and then run out of fuel on the road.
More people are stealing gas cans from trucks in the USA as well as just punching holes in gas tanks and draining the contents. Sony is adding local petrol price information to its satnav displays in Britain...and in India, a Good Samaritan has advertised his route to work in Bangalore so people can ride with him for free.
The Dominion Post in New Zealand has reported that "crippling" petrol prices have contributed to a dramatic increase in the cost of adopting kittens and puppies from the SPCA. The paper said that Wellington SPCA, which runs shelters in the capital city and on the Kapiti Coast, had increased the cost of adopting a puppy from $250 to $400 and a kitten from $150 to $210.
In Canada radar gun-toting police are noticing two things. Motorists are slowing down to conserve fuel but some of them are also not stopping as much, especially at stop signs, again to conserve fuel.
In Malaysia, where the government hiked up petrol prices by 41% and diesel by 63% in June 2008, there's been a surge in people ordering home delivered food to save them driving out to eat. McDonalds has started a home delivery service and other services report a 20% boom in business as Malaysians move to curb their use of fuel.
Back in the UK, the Daily Mirror did a test with six drivers in a people mover around a test track in Bedfordshire and its motoring columnist found that by driving more smoothly the group could save over £5,000 a year between them. The test also determined that smoother driving with less accelerator and brake would not only be safer but would cut carbon emissions by 1.5 tonnes annually per driver.
More people globally are walking and cycling so we have health benefits as well as a reduction in pollution. There are also reports of a decrease in injuries and fatalities on the roads but some of that could be offset by the jump in the numbers of bikes and scooters that are people now using, and falling from. Researchers in the USA says that if gas remains at $4 a gallon or higher for a year or more, annual U.S. traffic deaths could drop by about one-third, or 12,000 people. For every 10 percent rise in gas prices, fatalities are reduced by 2.3 percent.
More people are telecommuting and working from home. I've done that for the past 22 years so it's not new to me but a lot more people are now going down this path in an effort to use less fuel.
It will be interesting indeed to see what other side effects happen if the oil price continues to climb ever upwards.
Graham Kelly has been driving for 50 years and, like the rest of the world's motorists, is agape at how high fuel prices have climbed in 2008. He has been moved to write a booklet called
Save Fuel Costs which gives 50 top tips to drive your dollar further. You can check out this booklet here
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