At what level do you fill your car's fuel tank?

[randomness]

[Poll #1714922]

Comments

[sarakate.livejournal.com]

Quite a lot of my driving is in the 100-mile round trip range (that's the round trip to my mom's house, for instance), and I don't care to set off for that with less than a quarter tank, so it seems like that's usually about where I end up filling it. If I'm just tooling around locally, though, I'll let it get to the point where the indicator comes on (just below 1/8), and then go fill it up as the last thing before I go home on that particular trip out; I've discovered through practical experience that if I decide I'll wait till the next time I head out, I will be running late that time. :)

[sarakate.livejournal.com]

Oh, one modifier: if it's hurricane season, I keep an eye on the weather, and if there's a storm in the Gulf at all, even if it's not predicted to head this way, I keep the gas tank pretty darn close to full, and almost never below 3/4 -- if it's nearing 3/4 and I spot a station without a line, I'll go ahead and stop to fill up. Gas stations go INSANE around here if a storm is actually headed for anywhere from Mexico to Mississippi, and if one actually comes toward us or slightly east of here, it does pretty seriously disrupt supply for a bit.

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

This in fact gets at the reason I put up the poll; right now there's a political storm in the Middle East, and even if it's not necessarily predicted to "head this way", there's not telling whether it will or not.

So I'm now keeping my gas tank much closer to full, just in case there's a supply disruption.

Of course, this gets into "tragedy of the commons" territory, since if everyone did this it would promptly cause a demand shock, but it's still not a dumb thing to do, personally...