this post was submitted on 05 May 2026
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I have no idea why people keep trying to compare gas between countries. It's such a small part of things.
Heck, I'd pay $10/gal happily for no college tuition costs, national healthcare, and kids not having to do school shooter drills. (Yes yes Germany technically has University fees, but they're like $80 and is more a parking pass than anything)
Also Germany is smaller. Most people aren't driving 60km a day for a work commute. That's a fairly reasonable commute in the US.
Hell I used to commute 130km a day for university. No one would consider that in Germany, but I knew several people from high school making the same commute as me
The size of the country is completely irrelevant. What actually matters is that German metro areas sprawl less than American ones.
Any cities in Germany or the rest of Europe that are similar to San Francisco in size and density? SF seems relatively really decent for transit and walking
I commuted 130km twice for uni in Spain, I took a bus.
That's completely unrelated.
Cheap gas makes longer commutes and wasteful cars more attractive. If it were as expensive as Germany, your average commute would be significantly shorter.
You seem to misunderstand density. In my town in Germany I can walk to anywhere I need to go in 30 minutes, and in 50 I can walk from one end of town to the next. I'll pass dozens of bus stops and 3 train connections.
If I walked that same distance where I grew up in the US I'd be at a gas station, a church, or the woods. None of these offer adequate pay for me to live. I'll pass 0 bus stops, nearest train station would be about 20 miles away still.
This is why Americans freak out about gas prices. There are no other options in many places. Some people will read that and say "just move", but that fails to acknowledge the ongoing housing crisis.
So anyway back to the point on average Americans have to drive further and more frequently just to live. In Germany driving is generally more of a choice, at least in my experience, and due to the general density of cities you don't even have to drive far. Which helps with the gas costs.
Germany being smaller than the US is not the reason then. Germany being more dense is not a coincidence.
The high gas prices solely affect you the average US-American that much because of shitty US domestic policy. That's the sole reason. It's a tragedy of their own making, not some unchangable truth.
You seem to misunderstand their point, without cheap gas the US would have developed differently
America's transit issues is a problem 80 years in the making and covers everything from a post WW2 economic boom to intense lobbying of congress by car manufacturers. Gas is one part of the function, but seems pointless to make up a hypothetical about undoing 80 years of history when we're discussing current events
If you make gas expensive today it doesn't shorten anyone's commute. Maybe it applies pressure to build public infrastructure, but it's going to take decades to restructure the US. In that time the people suffer and have no other option but to endure the cost
In the long run sure, but in the long run we're all dead.
Did you even suggest carpooling with any of those people?
Part of the reason people outside the US would not spend what, 3 hours and 5?, 6? gallons of gas per day is that US petrol is stupid cheap. If it weren't, you and your high school buddies would have rented a place closer to your school. Seriously: 3 guys each paying $8/gallon for 5 gallons/day 4 days/week? $2000/month is rent. At $3/gallon, $250/month to live with your parents makes sense.
I did carpool with a friend often for the first few semesters, however that eventually didn't work out due to different work and school schedules. I often left class and drove straight to work. The days I didn't work I'd stay in the university library till 11pm doing work. I did have some off days of course, but still long days were common.
It also took just under 2 hours as it was mostly a rural stretch of interstate. Which helped a lot with gas efficiency at least. My car was also small and gas efficient so it was about 2.5 gallons per day.
If we round up to 3, that would be about $384 a month at the $8 per gallon price. Which was significantly cheaper than a room in an apartment. Those averaged around $450 to $500, but due to a lack of transit in the city I would still be driving to school. Plus you have to account for semester breaks where I wouldn't be driving at all. Of course gas was ranged from $3 to $3.50 per gallon then.
But then again I knew a guy who did this commute in a pickup truck. He complained about gas daily.
Also many of these people were just people I knew, not friends per se.