I was standing at the gas pump this afternoon in awe as I watched the dollars spin upwards as I filled up my car with gas. I suddenly had a vision of a new feature for the online mapping services that we use on a daily basis. Don’t just providing distance, time estimates, and directions for driving from Point A to Point B, but also tap into a feed of average gas prices within metro areas of the US and provide an estimated cost of fuel for that trip.
Doing so would give people a better sense of how much all their driving is really costing them when they are in the planning stages for that driving. That is the way to change consumer habbits and start eliminating the dependency on oil. Waiting until the consumer feels that cost at the pump is just scolding bad behavior, not encouraging good behavior.
I just check on Google Maps, feature doesn’t exist (yet). I’m licensing this idea Creative Commons Attribution. Anyone feel like implementing this and be part of the solution?