dirtydeeds said:
from what i can see the price of fuel is a political atom bomb in america
It's geography. [All data from Wikipedia] The UK is ~245,000 km2. The state of California by itself is ~424,000 km2, and both Texas and Alaska are bigger. It's true that much of the land is not inhabited, but we still have to get through it to get from one major center to another.
The "lower 48" (continental US without Alaska) span 4 time zones.
Canadians, Australians, and Russians will not find anything odd or impressive in these numbers.
The Canadians in particular are in much the same situation as Americans--if you were to draw a map of Canada weighted by population, it would be a very long, very thin country. Goods need to be transported long distances, and so the cost of fuel is a significant part of the cost of everything. Since their market is smaller, but the distances just as great as in the US, Canadian prices tend to be higher than American ones.
Many North American population centers became large only after the automobile arrived--in fact you could say they grew as a direct result of the automobile. While a few older Eastern cities--Boston, New York, Toronto, Montreal have mass transit that works well enough for real people leading real lives to depend on it, I don't think any North American city west of Chicago except San Francisco has anything like the mass transit services that Europeans would expect.
You could point out that tradesmen everywhere have a truck or van of some kind, and that's true, but North American tradesmen must operate in this spread-out geography. They also might use their own vehicles more often to carry materials and supplies, rather than relying on a vendor's delivery service.
I have tried for many years to own the smallest vehicle that will serve--not necessarily the cheapest to buy. After discovering that the Ford Ranger just wasn't big enough to handle my needs, I bought a Toyota Tundra--the first series Tundra was the smallest truck that qualified as "full-size" by North American standards. The big Fords and Dodges are distinctly bigger, but my pickup isn't small by world standards--4.7L engine, 5525mm overall length, 1900kg curb weight. I have never done better than 17 miles/US gallon (~20 miles/UK gallon, ~13.8 l/100 km) on regular grade fuel (87 octane). I chose to drive to Festool Fantasy Camp, about 300 miles (482km) from my home, and most Americans would not think that a strange decision.
None of this should be construed as boasting that all this is somehow better. It's simply a description of a very different place and set of circumstances.
Oh, and before someone can start whining about how North America
ought to be more like some other place, this isn't better, but it also
isn't worse. It just is.
Ned
