The tank is half full [a]

Jalopnik has a fine article on the wonders of expensive gas with respect to auto enthusiasts. Basically:

1. Less people on the road.
2. Less SUVs and more 350Zs coming off the line.
3. Diminished geographic sprawl resulting in clearer rural tarmac.
4. Weekend driver cars entail cheaper insurance.
   
5. Increased mean health.
   

On that last point, hilarity:

While this has a few boring side effects — fewer health-related deaths and lower health care costs, for example — the benefit to the driver is that your co-pilot is less likely to add sprung weight to your car. We're pretty sure it's the same reason Colin Chapman became a vegan and John DeLorean made sure all his women were coked-out anorexics.

I'm sure there are far more ins, outs, and what-have-yous than the five point brief covers. But it's certainly along the lines of conversations I've had with Erik and Connie spawned by reports of increased scooter sales.

I take no pride in saying I live in a hive of ignorant drivers, unnecessary traffic control, and terrible city planning. Perhaps five dollar gas combined with the cell ban will improve the situation marginally.

On a related note, I cruised by a hydrogen fuel station in Irvine the other day. A little preliminary research yielded the figures $5 for 70 miles in the new Honda hydro. Just don't smoke in it.

A couple charts [i]

I ran a script on my wave height log to plot mean and max set height (per Surfline) by month. The data goes back to mid-2006 and counts a few of the popular SD breaks (Blacks, Cardiff, etc.).

Dark blue is maximum set height. Light blue is average set height. The dots correspond to the right hand axis and represent the number of data points for that category.

I have a feeling the low data point count for June - September means there are a number of flat days that the script skips over. So the light blue line might actually be closer to one.

That aside, the mean wave height doesn't change much by month. This is probably because the big days we get in December are offset by trashy days on account of wind.

Of course, if you're looking for the big days, look no further than December, February, and April.


For anyone interested in the gaseofinancial impact of motorcycle ownership, here are the monthly gas expenses for the past couple years. They're normalized to $4/gallon based on average SD gas price for that month.

I did some quick and dirty averages, discounting May 2006 where 'froading added to the gas expenditure. Also I did not factor in December 2007 as it featured a road trip from Oregon to San Diego.

• Celica: $304/month
• Celica + Supersport: $165/month
• GTO + Supersport: $175/month
  

A few notes:

• The average expenditure figure for the Celica is based on just two months. These were months of job searching so with a regular commute the number might well have been higher.
• Celica averaged 27 mpg. GTO gets about 18. Supersport is near 40 on most fill ups.
  
• The normalization to $4/gallon provides a better perspective for averaging and comparison. But it should be noted that the differences would be greater in summer, also cheaper gas provided less of a disincentive for casual driving.