I remember the last time gas prices went through the roof.
I was riding my bike with my wife, going to the goshery store. A guy yelled out of his truck. I was like here we go....(im used to harassment on bikes). He said "Yeah! Stick it to em!"
We were just poor at the time, but it made our day haha.
What piece of shit harassed you for riding a bike?
Edit: I am deeply saddened by the current state of things.
In my local city, people die every year getting ran over on a bike. I knew a dr who didnt make it.
I got close-lined off my bike once around 2017. Its part of the gang initiation to send someone to the hospital. I have a dent in my nose because of it.
Its MUCH more dangerous in my area than most places though.
Maga land folks get very angry if you're even driving a small car. Been screamed at and almost ran off the road just for existing in a small car. It offends their tiny pp. Or something.
They REALLY hate bikes. Maybe because while they drive their 8000 lb dually quad cab thats never touched dirt or towed once, and hauls 1 person 99% of the time, they get mad at how efficient you are.
And I have a truck too. For work. 8 ft box single cab manual with no radio or ac. Hauls construction material and tows trailers. A truck used for real work. Fuck bro trucks.
Yup... drove a small car back from college and two truck bros decided it'd be fun to sandwich my car between them. One rode my rear bumper with high beams, the other slowed down and rode the middle line so I couldn't pass. Then he'd start slamming his brakes.
I got furious reading that. I would’ve slammed the brakes and said goodbye to my car at that point. USA hits different man.
You'd have said goodbye to your head as well, because that lifted truck isn't going into the rear of the small car... it's going up and over.
All I can say is fuck lobbying and fuck the god awful politicians allowing these small dick energy monstrosities to happen.
These are the people who don’t understand the meaning of Liberal as most lemmy commenters use it. It’s why it’s so dissonant.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Do-gooder_derogation
Some people are very fragile and have poor emotional regulation. When they see other people doing good, it makes them feel bad, so they lash out.
Environmentalism, biking, veganism, all commonly evoke this behavior.
One of my roommates in college had me drive him to buy a bike off of Craigslist so he could get around, he rode it home, and then never touched it again because he got a bunch of drive-by harassment/name-calling, it was really sad.
Where I live bikes have to block the traffic lane and you end up with a line of cars behind you a km long all going 15 in a 60 zone. Also cy lists get killed on these roads all the time so I see a bike less than once a year, but when I do, there are 100 cars behind them, or the bike is painted white in memorial to someone who died there.
what ? as a bike rider it happens to me quite often, the passenger hanging out the window yelling "get a car ya cheap cunt!" another time, fallen behind my gf for a bit, some dude hangs out the window and slaps her ass as they pass
Am Australian though.
the passenger hanging out the window yelling “get a car ya cheap cunt!”
At least get a bike, ya cheap passenger cunt!
Are you fucking kidding me? You’re describing apes
One time someone shouted at me from their truck that they didn't like my shirt. It wasn't a sports shirt and didn't have any logos at all. I think it was just baggier than they liked.
Sometimes people just dont like things being different.
This was my experience this morning. I ride a trike with a big fucking basket in back so i haul a lot of shit around town. It's mostly pickup dudes who love my trike anyways i've discovered, but when i'm hauling shit (like 150 pounds of cat food) they really love it. I get "how much gas are you saving on that" "all of it, it gets me to the next town and back" a lot and it's a real fun conversation.
Nice, those are the fun ones.
I wish people were kinder at times.
goshery store
The high gas prices may have added fuel to the fire, but the best news here is that used EVs are growing in popularity. That is a consequence of us finding out batteries don't degrade as fast as we first imagined, which makes used EVs a lot more interesting.
In the short term, that kills the market for new EVs, since used ones were so dirt cheap. In the long run, the resale value of new EVs will be much more stable, eliminating the last downside they had.
(Obviously, many car makers saw the short term pain and gave up on the entire market. That is of course because car maker CEOs are absolutely brilliant people with foresight and strategic thinking. Just kidding: they occupy the only category of jobs that should absolutely be replaced by AI.)
I think there's also a problem with the kinds of EVs everyone tried to sell.
Tesla has seen legitimate success in making EVs a desirable luxury item. The Prius became something of a fashion statement among kale chip eating Californians in the 2000s because of its alleged economy, but it was still an economy car. It wasn't that nice or luxurious. Tesla made cars people wanted to drive and be seen driving, with an all-electric powertrain.
Pretty much everyone tried to copy that business model, making excessively fast luxury sport sedanover blobs with price tags that make car shoppers start muttering the word "depreciation."
Meanwhile, EVs tend to be the breeding ground for shit features everybody hates, like touch screen HVAC controls. Nobody wants to make a normal car that happens to be electric, which is what a lot of the buying public wants, but can't find.
Don't forget the obsession with having any way to open a door except a boring normal way.
I'm really really hoping EVs get over the Tesla envy and just make sensible cars with EV drivetrains.
It's probably a wildly unpopular idea, but I personally would love a Miata with an H shaped battery pack to let the passengers ride low in the car at the expense of some range, with the traditional driveshaft tunnel becoming battery.
But failing that, straightforward door opening, actual buttons and knobs for HVAC and volume, and a reasonable expectation of serviceable battery pack over time and I'm totally there for it.
I hope more people try it because hot damn, I love having an EV. We got a gently used Bolt last year and it’s exceeded my expectations in every way. It’s quick and QUIET inside and so far we haven’t had the need to go beyond a regular old wall socket 120V charger (we mostly just drive in-town). But wow I love driving it and never stopping to gas it or even change the oil. It’s such a simple and satisfying experience.
Trump may be the best thing to happen to energy since we discovered fusion.
unfortunately he's decimating green energy in pretty much every other area. especially wind.
In the US
FTFY. The long term outcome for this is that the world stops revolving around the US. For better or for worse
Who are these people that just go out and buy a car because gas prices went up? Does going into debt and paying interest on a loan make sense just to save a few bucks on gas?
They are probably people that were already looking or anbout to start looking for a new car and pivoted to EV based on current conditions.
Doesn't take much research to conclude the used EV market values are driven by ignorance and are a bargain right now.
A 3 year old Ioniq5 is less than half the price of new, $28,000 go poof. Buying new EVs at >$50,000 makes no sense , but buying slightly used EVs at $12K-$24K makes total sense.
And even if the battery is degraded with maybe 5%, it's still an amazing car.
Lets say you needed to replace the battery one day anyway. You'll have saved on every other reparation, because EVs dont have moving parts that breaks all the time like in old cars.
Maybe. The average driver is spending just under $200 per month now on gas (14000 miles per year at 20mpg, gas $3/gallon - you can adjust numbers as you want, these are reasonable but some cars better fuel ecconomy) if you drive more than average it is possible to make payments on fuel savings in some cases.
or in my case the old car was going to be replaced anyway. Paymets were a given, so saving over $100 a month in fuel was a nice bonus. There are a lot of people who are buying something different anyway who care about their budget.
People whose car died at the worst time (because my personal situation) but also at the best time (because of the Iran war / oil situation). We really needed a new car fast and before our old car really broke down we were looking at either a hybrid or EV version of a certain car. The attack on Iran and its ripple effects simply tipped the balance towards the EV. I knew this bs wasn’t going to go away in a few days but we were fast enough to get one for the price it was before the war. I was already really looking forward to driving oil-free, so I think it’s been a good decision. No debt either.
Car are always being bought and sold. Some people jump from car to car every few years; I’ve known people who always lease precisely because they trade what they have every year or two for something new.
I’ve been an EV driver for the last few years; my brother called today to tell me he had just bought a used Bolt for his wife. As things happened one of his grown children had their car completely fail on them this week, and so he and his wife decided to buy themselves a new car so they could sell the old one for cheap to their child. With gas prices as they are they found a gently used Bolt EUV. They pick it up this weekend.
So in their case they didn’t go out and buy a car just because gas prices were up — but the decision between gas and EV was triggered by the price of gasoline.
The timing is unfortunate... I'd like to buy a used EV, and I've seen a few I like on carvana with very low miles for cheap... but I've been living in an apartment and would have no place to change it... Now I'm buying a house with (among many other things) a 240v outlet in the garage specifically for changing an EV... But it's going to be a couple weeks, and those used EVs are dwindling...
You can get by on public fast chargers for the interim. 120V is also more viable than I expected. I was all ready to install a 240 line for a charger when we bought our EV but a year later we haven’t actually needed to yet. No long commute in our household, so 🤷♂️BTW we did exactly what you described: bought a very low-miles used Bolt on Carvana.
Take the plunge if you want to.
Had a Nissan Leaf few years. Never needed a 240v. On the standard 120v charger it gained about 5 miles every hour it was plugged in. Most every day it was in my driveway for 12+ hours so even when it was super close to dead, after dinner and sleeping it’d be up to 60ish miles of charge. My commute was 22 miles round trip, so it was almost always fully charged in the AM, and I was able (but it was a pita to run the cable) to charge it at my office on 120v as well in case it was ever a real problem.
You might just do it now. You can probably be ok for a few weeks.
Today my work friend, who was totally against EV’s said he should have been bought EV, because gas prices are so high now.
Whomp whomp.
laughs in bicycle
God how I miss living in an urban area. Until two years ago, I'd bike with my kids to their school every day. Where we are now, it's 10 miles of deathtrap pavement away. ☹️ I wouldn't feel comfortable riding most of it on my own, let alone with my kids.
Fuck cars. Quality of life is so much higher when you don't have to depend on them.
The problem is it's still cheaper for me to fuel my car up with exploding dinosaurs than it is to buy an EV.
new ones in the US are overpriced. its probably everything but TESLAS.
I'm thinking about upgrading my bicycle
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
