Apparently, AATA busses are free tomorrow (May 25). With gas prices being what they are, it couldn’t come at a better time.
As I’ve mentioned here on the site before, I have this idea to kick off a campaign in favor of a national gas tax. Like the dim-witted fool that I am, I’d been planning to formally launch it this summer. It hadn’t crossed my mind, until I was standing there at the pump today, watching the numbers on the dial roll past $50, that perhaps the subject of a gas tax might best be broached later in the year, once the oil companies, completely sated, take a break from their relentless fucking of the American people. Regardless of how good an idea it might be, I can’t imagine anyone signing onto a campaign right now that sought to raise prices by another quarter… But, then again, people are buying SUVs in record numbers again. (April sales figures were up 25 percent from April 2006.) Maybe the price of gas isn’t something people care about.
[Thanks to Steve Pierce for the AATA link.]
4 Comments
As someone who can walk to work, I’m bullish on high gas prices. I’ve done the math, and once gas hits $107 a gallon, I’ll be the richest man in town. Provided no one takes the bus.
I can forgive people that bought SUVs ten years ago. They could have ben unaware. To buy one today, knowing what we know about the Middle East, global warming, the scarcity of oil and all the rest of it, is unforgivable.
Humans are vile, stupid creatures.
I’m with ya on the gas tax. People should PAY for their petrol usage, literally and figuratively. Not to mention, both state and federal governments could use the money right now. I’d even go out on a limb and say that they could put the tax proceeds to better use, better at least than the few lattes that it’d cost the soccer moms.
It would really help downtown Ypsilanti if gasoline was, say, $5.00 a gallon. Tourists and other buffs visiting us for festivals wouldn’t be detrred … but it would get a lot of folks who have to commute into town thinking about living back in the city … it would take some folks out of the city, who believe it or not, prefer to live in Ypsilanti, but the job is elsewhere … but it would help downtown … would get more people and draw more retailers back to the city.
NOTE: Article in A2 news yesterday about the latest strip center failure out on Jackson Road …
Come’on downtown!