Damian Dovarganes of the AP wrote this peice about the effect of gas prices on household budgets; it’s interesting how an piece like that spreads.  Google shows it in over 400 news outlets from Fox to NPR.

I am not interested in the article, but this factoid: it says that American households spend on average $369 a month on gas.  If we presume that gas cost 4$ a gallon then we are buying 92.25 gallons of gas a month.  If we assume 20 miles to the gallon we are driving 1,845 miles a month.  That’s around 61.5 miles a day.  About an hour a day in the household’s cars.  By the way, that hour is  commuting to work.

I did a posting a few years ago about car costs.  At the time time gas was 27% of the over all expense, and for example, depreciation was 25%.  At that time gas was $2.90 a gallon.

The article quotes an expert saying that there isn’t much you can do to improve your milage.  Gosh, I suspect that quote pissed off the expert; since he surely knows there is plenty you can do: air in the tires, combine trips, drive slowly and smoothly.

(fyi – the AP pretty far to the right)