In yet another alliterative flourish, US news media headline writers have standardized on “pain at the pump” to announce yet another story on consumer reaction to rising gasoline prices. Ah, the hapless consumer, set upon by evil oil companies intent on squeezing him/her dry, and with no recourse except to take it like men/women.

Not necessarily. Here, presented as a public service, is an extremely simple way to determine how to maintain automobile fuel expenses at whatever rate you wistfully recall, within the range of possibility. You only have to do one thing — consume less. You don’t even have to alter your driving habits. And presto, you’re pain-free. The assumption: you drive an average of about 1,500 miles per month. All you have to do is select whatever monthly dollar amount you think reasonable, at the prevailing cost per gallon, and acquire a vehicle with the corresponding fuel economy.

You, of course, know all this, but it can serve as a reminder to acquaintances who may feel themselves in the grip of forces beyond their control. Qualitatively, to most people traveling, say, 100 miles with two passengers and a moderate amount of cargo, there is little difference between a safe, reliable, comfortable, well-outfitted vehicle that gets 15 mpg and one that gets 30 mpg (or even 40+ mpg in the case of certain hybrids). And there is zero difference in the result — arrival at your destination, with any unwanted schedule changes solely a result of events outside the control of you or your car.

Look at it this way. If you like drinking a liter of bottled water and the price doubled, there’s no reasonable way you could alter your behavior in a way that would still allow you to drink a liter of it at half the new price. But change cars, and you can still drive 1,500 miles a month at half the current price.

When people reflect on how they’ve been able to drive 6,000-lb, 10-passenger vehicles as sole occupants at a cost of US $2.50 a gallon or even less, instead of griping about not being able to do it anymore they should marvel at how long they have gotten away with it consequence-free. All the usual arguments for doing so — safety, kids to transport, visibility, and the rest — wither in the face of the fact that people elsewhere in the world get along just fine without such devices.

Subways, busses, trains, bicycles, or shoes may satisfy the transportation needs of many of us, but there remains a large number in a continent-size country for whom transportation by motor vehicle is a nearly ideal solution. All those people have to do to preserve this option for the future is this: get smart about it. The land-yacht era in the United States is over. It would be wise for us to debark.

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