Lets Start a REAL "Buy-No-Gas" E-mail

[ZacFields]

The Cedar Rapids Gas E-mail

If you heard of the "Buy No Gas on May 15th" email and have not noticed quite the effect you would have expected from it, you're not alone! The "Buy No Gas" email was completely ineffective and the reason can be explained through simple logic:

The demand for gas is fairly unique. It's an item where the demand can only be decreased with a change in habit. If you think of it this way, lets say today (May 15th) your gas tank was running pretty low while you were on your way to work, so after seeing all the signs about how you shouldn't buy gas today, you decided to pass by the gas station and just let your tank run lower.

Well at this point, tomorrow you're going to buy gas. And since you waited an extra day to buy gas, you're just going to buy an extra day's worth of gas, right? You drove just as much on the 15th as you do any other day, so even though you weren't buying any gas, that doesn't mean you weren't still using it.

So on May 15th, a certain percentage of the United States allowed there to be a slight surplus in gas for the day, but after May 15th when people start buying gas again, they have unknowingly suckled all of that surplus away by simply buying an extra day's worth of gas on a different day.

[hr]

Our Solution

Let's send out an email that has a real plan that will actually decrease gas consumption. I propose we set a single day per week that we urge motorists to replace their car-trips with a bike ride or perhaps a walk, because once again, postponing gas consumption is not an effective way to curb demand. Demand for gas will only be decreased with a change in American habit.

The Details

Let's plan on using Tuesdays. I have chosen this day because as far as I know, it has no religious affiliations, and being that it is at the beginning of the week it is a day where gas consumption is very high. If anyone can do some research to decide a better day, I would be open to ideas. I would like to not use Friday or Saturday as those are national "get outside" days and I don't think this will be as successful if we use one of those days.
[/*:m:0b914]
I would like our email to include hard facts about how this plan will work if everyone comes together. Since gas is such a universal need, we need the cooperation of a very high percentage of people. I want to use statistics showing if demand for gas was reduced by X%, here is how much money that the big oil companies would lose every week.
[/*:m:0b914]
I also suggest we provide alternative ways people can help if not using a vehicle is not an option for them, such as devoting yourself to only using your most gas efficient vehicle on that day. Or perhaps car-pooling to work on Tuesdays with some coworkers.
[/*:m:0b914]
The email will be started via the "Mass Email" function of this forum software. We'll send out the email to all the members of this website, and include within the email a suggestion to forward the email to friends/family.
[/*:m:0b914]
The email needs to be short and quick. Nobody will read an email that is pages long. For this reason, I suggest we put the basics on the email, and include a couple links for more information. I am willing to host more information on this server for the use of this email.
[/*:m:0b914]


Conclusion/What to do now?

I'm going to get started on the email now. But anyone who has ideas should submit them to me in this topic. Please do not be negative, as negative comments will have to be deleted in favor of the progress of this project. I am putting some pieces together to get some more attention for this idea because as I previously stated, we need cooperation on a large-scale level before this can take off.

Please feel free to respond with ideas, and as I said I am putting some things in motion to get some more eyes and ears for this project. I will continue to update this first post's "The Details" section with more specific details as we iron them out. I want to do this the right way!

Zac

[DustinsDuster]

just let me know when you want to do this. ive been looking for a good excuse to ride my bike to work....

[Drifte]

i already bike it on every chance, and simply dont drive to save my own money. Not sure wer can influence people to change their habits. carpooling is about it and organization. which form my experience, 90% of people are so terribly unorganized id say they lose 20% more of their income because if it...if not more.

[ZacFields]

I know a lot of you might overlook something like this at first. However, I would be inclined to believe that if gas prices ever peak $4.00 per gallon as some people say that it might this summer, people are going to want to change their habits.

That's why I think a good old fashioned "Chain Letter" type email could do people a lot of good, by giving them a good idea that can help them save some money and allow us to take money out of the oil companies' pockets.

Perhaps we shouldn't pick a specific day, and the initiative could simply be to pick one day out of the week that you would usually drive everywhere and replace that driving with biking and walking, or carpooling, or whatever.

Could you even imagine how much it would help if everyone in the US carpooled to work just one day a week? Or if everyone in the didn't drive their cars on one day a week?

Obviously the effects couldn't be expected to be that crazy but you get the idea.

Overall I think this would be a fun way that us, CRUnderground could be responsible for initiating something that could help a lot of people if the word was spread out enough.

Zac

[tylers88]

It was a really good idea but to make up the lost wages they had to raise prices. It's kind of a catch 22. Like when you buy gas the demand goes up so they raise the price again, but on the other hand when you don't buy gas it makes them lose money so how do they make that back, by screwing people like me who get 10 mpg(highway) in the ass, so any more when you think of it like that it dosen't really help.

I will admit I'd love to clock those bastards in the mouth for the rediculus gas prices, I'm with everyone on that. I guess I have already accepted the fact my truck is thirsty so I give it a drink and there treating it like beer at a football game, people with buy pretty much no mater what the price is.

Sorry Zac but you have your opinion and I have mine but it would be cool to rub it in there face some how.


Tyler

[ZacFields]

Tylers88: I can understand where you're coming from, but an item that has a price fueled by supply and demand (such as gasoline) doesn't work quite like that.

If the gas price got so high that people stopped buying gas, it would be a huge mistake to bump up the price even more. Honestly the gas companies and OPEC are practicing fair supply and demand law. The basic idea being "Raise the price as high as it will go without losing customers." Makes a lot of sense for a money standpoint, right? If you have 50 million customers at $2.00 a gallon, and raising the price to $3.00 you still have 50 million customers, why not, eh? To use an extreme example, how much money do you think the gas companies would make if they were charging $1,000,000 per gallon? Nothin... zilch. Maybe a couple million a day to Bill Gates. They make several million a day right now.

What America needs is a HUGE movement to throw off the supply and demand curve. We need a very large percentage of people to come together somehow and figure out ways to severely decrease their gas consumption. The problem is, I don't think American's will actually make a *real* change until gas is nearing $5.00 per gallon.

The infamous "gas email" was a good idea in theory but it was not a correct idea. If you think about it, it's a shame. The people who started it were able to spread it all over the country and a lot of people cooperated with it, but its just too bad the concept behind the idea was completely wrong.

Zac

[logans dad]

I will do my part by changing the GSX to E85.

[Drifte]

hehe "THE CRUNDERGROUND GAS MOVEMENT"

were a bunch of guys (and gals) that love driving. but whatever i can do to help i will. Remember im a 4 year vet of the electric car program. spent one year making a gas effeciency cart. im all for this, i even drive a civic! i try all kinds of things to get better gasmileage. today i exchanged the trans fluid flushed the engine and changed the oil, new fuel filter..

to bad it doesnt have a cat.