gouge=to charge excessively
found it in my big dictionary :)

I agree that a lot of people do complain about the prices but are not willing to change their driving habits. The complaints were the same when the gas prices were at 1 Euro/litre a while back. And they were the same when the price was 0,50ct /litre about 20 years ago.
When I read about folks who get no more than 23 mpg from the same car that I have I wonder how they do it. I get 32 mpg from it.
When I was going to get some food from a grocery store with a friend he suggested we should take the car to get there. I thought he was nuts, it was just half a mile away. I would never think of using the car for such distances.
Maybe that's because when I grew up my family didn't have a car at all. We did everything by bike, be it buying groceries or visiting my grand parents who lived 20 miles away. When I see parents driving their kids to school in such a small town as ours I think some will never learn to be responsible with the resources we have.
I'm not a fanatic who wants to ban cars entirely. I live in a small village now and I need a car to get to work every day.
But I still try to avoid short distance rides and I don't waste gas by driving excessively fast.

Marcel