Seventy cents a gallon for gas... Well, hear me out, first

Ask anyone who writes for a living and they’ll tell you the same thing. Write what you know. (This is what passes for an apology for so many stupid posts about traffic. The simple fact of the matter is that with my new job requiring a lot of driving, this is becoming what I know.)

Case in point are my two cents for today. Centering around the debate over a new light rail line that would run right down the middle of the street in front of my office it’s been recently revealed that the train trip would probably take longer than the existing bus routes that are being used right now. Oops.

Part of the tangle results from mistakes made with the only existing light rail up and running which snarls traffic as it overrides signals on its trip from the mall to the Metrodome.

The only logical solution it to build a poor version of the El, clearing traffic routes, while still allowing the cities to keep their new toys. Sure, it’d look like the monorails at Epcot, but what the hell? I’ll even serve as project manager for the thing. It’ll be awesome.

I’ll invite in the Jesus of the Peanuts, known to Red Line riders during baseball season, and make it a real bang-up good time when we open it. Best of all, it’ll provide a market for all of those obsolete El cars, now that Chicago is going the route of New York City and buying knockoffs of their cars.

For those of us left at street level, today I saw gas prices slip a dime a gallon in my neighborhood, which is encouraging. I’ve started tracking fuel economy because I am a nerd and have three contingency plans for improving this in the future as my job is requiring between 200 and 300 miles per week in travel.

This could be a big issue in a month or so when the pump prices rise again to make the most of summer road trips being made when the kids get out of school. Through all of this, I miss my bike and the “commute” I used to make down Waveland Avenue, past Wrigley and onto the lakefront path every morning.

Out of all the things I miss about Chicago, second only to family and friends is that half hour each way every day that made it all worth the higher rent, city and county taxes and other pratfalls of city life.

Thirty minutes, each way, buzzing stopped cars on Lincoln Avenue? I still dream about those rides, no lie.

Now, being suckerpunched by the oil companies to the point that $2.75 per gallon seems reasonable, I wish there was some way to be rewarded for my eco-friendly travel from last year. Some way to clock in an ID every time you headed to the pump to prorate your gas prices directly related to consumption.

For instance, if I rode my bike for 10 months, took the train two months and only used my truck to run for groceries, to the hardware store and to check in with the folks, I’d be well under “average consumption” and would pay 70 cents a gallon, as long as I used under 25 gallons per month.

People using an average amount of gas to power an average sedan would pay roughly market price in the $1.25 to $1.75 range and those with gas guzzlers who drove everywhere would pay more per gallon after they hit the top of that average usage limit.

To be fair, we could cap the top line price at something arbitrary like one and a half times the going market rate and they’d only pay increasing amounts up to that point. Think of it as gas rations, but with the ability to buy more if you’d like.

This could be as easy or as complicated as people would want to make it with allowances for rural and urban areas, or by profession with breaks for pizza guys and trucking or school bus companies.

In the meantime, I’d be on easy street, with my 75-cent gas as I’d live off the residual goodwill of a year’s worth of personal car neglect. At least until that light rail station gets politically manhandled onto a corner near you.