3,000 miles

The odometer on my scooter turned over 3,000 miles this morning on my way into work. If I'd have used our van for those miles, it would have probably used approximately 176 gallons of gasoline. At the current price of around $3.80, that's $668.80 in gas alone to travel those 3,000 miles. On the other hand, my scooter has only needed 35 gallons. That's only $133.00 to travel those 3,000 miles - a savings of $555.80. And that's just for the gasoline. It takes a lot more to keep a car running than just the gasoline. For instance, we had two repairs done on our van just a few months ago that totaled almost $2000. No repair on my scooter would ever cost that much - or I'd just buy a new scooter. It only cost $2,500 brand new last year.

The gas price I used, $3.80, is actually lower than we have to pay in our area. But the gas prices happen to be really high right now and continue to go up. So, of course, these numbers are all estimates. I'm not sure if the price of gasoline will stay this high but it's never going to go down too low. The world is increasing its use of gasoline and other petroleum products faster than we are discovering and exploiting new sources. But every time I see a report on the news about how high the price of gasoline has risen to, I smile a little thinking about my scooter.

[Update - April 26. In case you want to check my math: I know you could figure this out but to make things easier, I'll tell you that our van (a 2005 Chrysler Town and Country) averages 17 miles per gallon. For my scooter, the average is 85 miles per gallon.]