The unreported downside to higher gas prices

[msmercenary]

Each time the price at the pump goes up a nickel, I know about it. It's always in the news around here because Western WA and OR have some of the most expensive gasoline in the U.S (as I write this, premium is in the $3.55/gallon range at the Chevron station near work). But there's a hidden downside to high prices that never hits the media

Comments

[kazriko]

I think I've seen that issue happen. There's another in that many pumps will shut off at a predetermined cost requiring you to feed your credit card in a second time to get the other part of your fuel tank.

I don't have any problems with my car, but we have trucks at work with tanks that can easily require $100 to fill.

[chalain]

Without trying to say that this isn't a hassle, I just want to say that this is very cool. I mean, from a decidedly nonsubjective viewpoint

[jerith]

My proposed solution: Make the flow rate constant (volume/time) but let the pump dole that out in packets of price. If you push the lever you get a minimum of $0.01 worth of petrol or something. Then again, this is probably too fragile to work in the real world. I'm going to go back to metering bandwidth instead of petrol...

[kazriko]

I'm not sure how consumer gas pumps work, but the metering we do of fuel on the pumps that put gasoline into the tanker trucks that service the gas stations has one big pump with valves. The pump can operate at variable speeds but as long as the rack is on, the pump is keeping the pressure up on the line. You open the valves to the dispensing arm and then meter it after it goes through the valves, and the meter measures the gas flowing to the tank regardless of how fast it is flowing