Ivan wrote:

johannes wrote:
|| Ivan wrote:
|||
||| A few short months ago the prospect of diesel fuel breaking through
||| the £1.00 a litre barrier appeared to be unlikely, but with it now
||| costing over £1.20 a liter that's nudging £5.50 a gallon, this got
||| me wondering just how much it would have to reach before people on
||| this newsgroup reached a point where they would be seriously
||| thinking about giving up their car? .. My own threshold would be
||| somewhere around £10.00 a gallon and that would be it.
||
|| Are you mad? You must be a lottery winner then. Current prices are at
|| breaking point. £10 per litre would mean £16250 per annum in my case
|| just for fuel to drive to work. I would need an extra income of
|| £27,083 just to support this single cost item. Then add Road Tax and
|| insurance plus cost of maintenance and car renewal.

I was of course only referring to my own set of personal circumstances,
'fortunately' retired, mortgage paid off along with careful budgeting and
running a diesel, which according to manufacturer's spec can deliver around
63 mpg [presumably with some 'very' careful driving)]
therefore around 70/100 miles of motoring a week for £20.00 wouldn't
represent too much of a hardship to me, although I can well see how
desperate the situation would be for others at that sort of cost, which was
the reason I asked at what sort of threshold would make people on this ng
'seriously' think about giving up their vehicles.
Having said that however, judging by what appears to be the ever increasing
amount of traffic I see on the roads on a daily basis the increased fuel
cost so far doesn't apear to have had very much impact.

This is not true. There is certainly not the same growth of traffic any
longer. And curiously, the politicians talk about road pricing has suddenly
gone mute. They know that's a bad situation and election(s) are always
around the corner.