![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
glenatronDoing sums in a reply to one of ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
gemmabowles' posts, I just worked out that the current UK price of a little over £1.00 per litre equates to approximately $9.36 per gallon.
I'm fairly sure it's cheaper than that overseas.
On one level I don't mind, because I know we need something to persuade us to use our cars less. On the other hand I find it deeply irritating that the amount of tax we are paying on it ( 65.24p per litre, or 188%, according to the lazy researcher's compendium ) is not being used to bring down prices of public transport so it still costs £12000 to go half a mile by train unless you booked seven months previously naming the exact train you wanted to go on, which seat you wanted and guaranteeing you would be in that seat even if a previous connecting train didn't connect. And heaven forfend that you should want to take a bike on a train, even during the middle of the day when they are almost completely empty. Hey everyone! Let's pay exponentially more for a service that is exponentially less useful. Thank you John Major, remind me to kick you really hard in the nuts for that one if I ever meet you in person. Several times.
Also it annoys me that airlines pay nothing. If we have to pay that much as citizens then I don't see why aircraft should be cut any slack. If you look up from the field at night you can always see at least seven or eight planes at any given time. They're using a lot of fuel to stay up there, but they get it for vastly less money than we do driving.
I guess it also seems a bit unfair. The only thing that will put a curb on the use of petrol globally will be the end of cheap oil. I feel a little like we're being wailed on a whole lot more than everyone else in the mean time. I suppose it means we'll be accustomed to it when the rising price of oil really starts to bite, but that's not a deeply cheering thought.
gemmabowles' posts, I just worked out that the current UK price of a little over £1.00 per litre equates to approximately $9.36 per gallon.I'm fairly sure it's cheaper than that overseas.
On one level I don't mind, because I know we need something to persuade us to use our cars less. On the other hand I find it deeply irritating that the amount of tax we are paying on it ( 65.24p per litre, or 188%, according to the lazy researcher's compendium ) is not being used to bring down prices of public transport so it still costs £12000 to go half a mile by train unless you booked seven months previously naming the exact train you wanted to go on, which seat you wanted and guaranteeing you would be in that seat even if a previous connecting train didn't connect. And heaven forfend that you should want to take a bike on a train, even during the middle of the day when they are almost completely empty. Hey everyone! Let's pay exponentially more for a service that is exponentially less useful. Thank you John Major, remind me to kick you really hard in the nuts for that one if I ever meet you in person. Several times.
Also it annoys me that airlines pay nothing. If we have to pay that much as citizens then I don't see why aircraft should be cut any slack. If you look up from the field at night you can always see at least seven or eight planes at any given time. They're using a lot of fuel to stay up there, but they get it for vastly less money than we do driving.
I guess it also seems a bit unfair. The only thing that will put a curb on the use of petrol globally will be the end of cheap oil. I feel a little like we're being wailed on a whole lot more than everyone else in the mean time. I suppose it means we'll be accustomed to it when the rising price of oil really starts to bite, but that's not a deeply cheering thought.