A sign that'll stop traffic?

Four or five months ago, who’d have thought a sight like this would provoke the everyday driver to think, “Damn, that’s a good price, I better jump on that.” And after slicing across a lane or two accompanied by a chorus of horns, yells, and maybe even a couple of one-figure salutes, that’s exactly what you did. Or exactly what I did. But who’s keeping score?

The fact is, most of us fretfully figured regular petrol was gonna go the other way and hit $5 a gallon. We were damn close out here in So Cal, and if your vehicle of choice needed better than 87 octane, you were parting with a fin for each gallon for sure.

On the other hand, we finally caught a break, prices have declined, and it seemed to me that the dip below $4 a gallon was noteworthy. In fact, we seem to be heading the other way at a fairly good clip—in the two day since I took this pic, the prices at this station was down to $3.89. Will the trend continue? That’s the $74 question, itsn’t it? (I know the quip says $64 question, but it takes $10 more than that to fill my tank at this point. Get it?)

I’m no economist, to be sure, but one of the major factors in this dip is the simple concept of supply and demand. With prices skyrocketing, people have driven less—demand lowers, supply increases, prices drop.(click here) That’s a simplistic view, I know, but if you saw my checkbook you’d know that’s the best I can do, so you econo-geniuses be kind. Hopefully, prices will continue to plummet. Which means the drive is back on, right? I’m thinking maybe not. In addition to driving less when possible, I’ve been driving slower. Before those of you who know me speak up, yes, it’s true. Really. And it makes a difference--going 65-70 instead of 75-80 often improves the deal as much as 2 mpg.

A few months back I wrote about “snake oil” gimmicks to increase mileage. Well, in the months ahead I’ll be trying a few. I’ve been keeping mpg records, so I’ll be able to report the results. And here’s a teaser for you—this weekend, if everything goes according to plan, I’m gonna take the most drastic measure of all for a Southern Californian. That’s right, I’m gonna try public transit. It may be a drop in the bucket, but maybe I can save a dollar or two—and do my part to help keep that pesky demand down.