Friday, June 13, 2008

"Controlled Chaos" in Norman, OK

(Image from Jalopnik, with an article about $5/gallon gasoline in CA)


Metro Brokers of Oklahoma, a local real estate company owned by Gwen Holmes, offered $2/gallon gasoline as a promotional stunt. The limit was 8 gallons and it would be sold between noon and 2PM. The line of vehicles waiting for cheap fuel stretched for nearly a mile according to the Norman Transcript article.

I liked this:

Another man, who looked like a retired college English professor, sat on his bicycle watching the rows and rows of automobiles wait. At one point he sniffed the air, which at times was thick with smell of gasoline and exhaust, and glanced at a large SUV about 10 yards away from him. The massive black Suburban was running, all of its tinted windows were rolled up tight and a small lake of water from the vehicle's air conditioner flowed behind it until it disappered beneath the hordes of waiting cars.

"Pretty ironic, isn't it," he said.

Three police officers were on hand to keep order. Is that the scent of panic in the air? How long until we see fuel riots?

One solution - ride your bike. You'll buy less fuel, absorb less craziness, and find that life goes on without minute-by-minute reliance on an automobile.





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2 Comments:

Blogger South To Stilly said...

If someone drives all the way to the station, then waits 2 hours in their car (and, since it's hot, leaves it turned on), would they not use up a lot of the gas they just boat?

The solution is simple: fly magic carpets instead.

2:34 AM  
Blogger Ed W said...

I was wondering about that too. How much fuel does a Hummer use when it's idling for an hour with the AC cranked up?

And another thing, if you could afford the Hummer in the first place, why wait in line for an hour for cheaper gas?

10:52 AM  

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