This Associated Press story has been making the rounds on the news circuits. It’s on page 4A of today’s print and e-editions of The Monroe Evening News; or, if you are not a MEN subscriber, I’m linking to it at MSNBC.

Analyst predicts $7 a gallon gas by 2012

A snippet:

Growing global demand and supply constraints will push oil prices to $200 a barrel and gas prices to $7 a gallon within four years, forcing 10 million U.S. cars off the road, according to Jeff Rubin, chief economist at CIBC World Markets.

“Many of those in the exit lane will be low income Americans from households earning less than $25,000 per year,” Rubin said in a statement. “At their current driving habits, filling up the tank will have risen from about seven percent of their income to 20 percent, an increase that will see many start taking the bus.”

The problem is that public transit availability is not what it should be. There are lots of neighborhoods right here in Monroe County that don’t have a city bus. And the options get even more limited if you need to get from Monroe to Ann Arbor, Toledo or Detroit.

I’m a big fan of Lake Erie Transit, but the savings for my family from using the city bus was not in gas money – but in avoiding the other expenses that would result from going to a two-car family to a three-car family.

Besides, the public transit authorities have bills to pay too. LET is asking for a rate increase.