Gas has never been more expensive in the US, at $2.30 or so a gallon (3,88 kroner a litre), and my impression was that it’s the sort of political issue presidents are elected on. Of course, here in Norway, petrol is US$6.15 a gallon (11,22 kroner a litre), and in the Netherlands it’s $6.14, and in Great Britain, Germany and Belgium it’s around $5.92 a gallon. So Bergens Tidende tells us today.
I’m kind of pleased that while Norway does have the most expensive petrol in Europe, everyone else is pretty close. And we’re spending a smaller percentage of our incomes on petrol today (3%) than we were a decade ago (4%). Unfortunately a bus ticket has become vastly more expensive in terms of percentage of our incomes. I don’t know about the relative cost of shoes, which for me as a walk most places person would be the most valid comparison.
Though I admit, I loved driving a couple of thousand miles around the USA this summer. And today I’d have loved to have had a car to drive out to Coop Bygg (like the Home Depot) instead of having to take the bus.
Martin
SV has been talking about improving collective transportation systems since…well, forever.
Maybe if they (finally) get into Stortinget this fall, they’ll be able to do something about it.
I hope so. It’s a shambles. I have to pay 50 kroner to go to Sandvikstorget and back? That’s
insane.
(Oh, and the text box I’m typing this in disappears behind the comments & trackbacks column.
I’m using Firefox.)
ÿivind
We should be happy Bergen is such a horrible place to drive a car in, really. And in my opinion, a system where public petrol prices were sky-high while collective transport got off dirt cheap would be heaven. Less pollution in town, less annoying cars making even more annoying noise. And most importantly, no more missing the bus just because you had to wait forever just to get across the road.
Didn’t you just burst Carl I,’s bubble? The “petrol prices DOWN without any concern for general price index” guy?
dr. b.
Gas pricing is a huge political issue in these parts. When I first moved to Indiana it was a gubernatorial election year and they had suspended tax on gas for the year in order to help local farmers stay in business and to garner more votes. It worked.