Australia: How petrol is putting Sydney under the pump

As petrol prices soared yesterday, many people stayed clear of the pump. Service stations appeared to be almost empty, except for people who could not avoid buying petrol.

“It’s just ridiculously expensive,” said Wendy Claydon, who drives in heavy traffic between Neutral Bay and Chippendale. She spends at least $100 a week on petrol.”Most fuel just goes up in smoke as you sit there,” Ms Claydon said.

Mr Watson said rising petrol prices would fundamentally change how people move around.

“That’s happening anyway, away from privately-owned vehicles to what’s called fractional ownership. There’ll be a move towards public transport and there’s massive implications for moving people around internationally, which will be a big hit to Australia,” he said. “Travel will become what it was a century ago: the preserve of the rich.”

As the Herald reported a fortnight ago, the effect of rising petrol prices is greatest in Sydney’s outer western suburbs, where average incomes are lower, public transport is stretched, and there is little choice but to drive to work.

In The New York Times this week, the economist Paul Krugman predicted the death of the American suburban vision. The future, he said, was old-Europe: small cars, medium-density apartments, mass-transit systems. They were the options that made sense when fuel bills rose.

SMH