Fuel prices are high and are impacting almost every part of our daily life. Such is the case with US drivers who seem to travel less, due to fuel costs and the economy crysis affecting the country. Statistics from the US Department of Transportation show that americans traveled in 2008 over 40 billion fewer miles than in the same period in 2007. An even more shocking one is that in May, 9.6 billion fewer miles were driven in the US. According to CNNmoney.com, this is the biggest decline in miles travelled since the Department of Transportation have recorded it. Cars are replaced by trains, buses and bicycles in an effort to cut costs but still enjoy a vacation away from home by Americans.

A delicate situation is the current stagnation and even lowering of the fuel prices, whether this will make US citizens travel more by car is yet unknown, only time will tell if this would have any impact on them. Another delicate side-effect of the rise in fuel prices is that the tax imposed by the government on the fuel has remained the same since the price has risen, thus the miles less traveled make a pretty big hole in the government budget.

Read More: "Fuel prices make US drivers travel less"

Gas prices are going to a new world record. It seems driving a car will become more and more expensive. However, there is a solution to that: HHO (two parts Hydrogen and one part Oxygen) is a gas that provides heaps of energy and the end product is just water.

In fact Mobile Magazine said: “HHO provides the atomic power of Hydrogen, while maintaining the chemical stability of water”

HHO is already used for powering devices like electronics, mechanical tools and… cars.

Engineer Thomas Greene has just released a guide called Simple Water Fuel where he reveals the exact blueprints that anyone can use to save tons of gas on his or her car. There are already tens of thousands of drivers who use systems based on HHO to save big and reduce the emissions.

The most spectacular fact is that to assemble a system like this you will need only a few hours and some components that you can get from any hardware store. To put together the whole system it will cost you between $100 and $200.

Of course, you will need a guide to tell you how to do it. For more info about this check out SimpleWaterFuel.com.

Apparently, the owners of a Nevada brothel thought that a good way to boost ’sales’ would be to offer customers gas vouchers. And it seems that the idea was pretty good, because, according to James and Bobbi Davis, the owners, they’ve already had to order another $1,000 set of gas vouchers because the first $1,000 were spent in the first week.

The vouchers are worth $50 each and are given to customers that spend $300 (about one hour’s worth of services). The 50 bucks covers the cost of a round trip drive from Las Vegas to the ranch, located in Beatty, Nevada, 130 miles northwest of Vegas.

Brothels, illegal in most US states, are legal in some parts of Nevada and Shady Lady Ranch, Davis’ brothel, has been operating for 16 years. His wife came up with the idea of offering gas vouchers, because summer is usually a slow month for their business and the gas price hit a record $4.08 a gallon last week.

The rising oil prices have definitely had repercussions on anyone driving a car or a truck. Not to mention independent gas stations, because drivers have cut back on driving or choose to refuel at stations with lower prices, putting nearly 3,000 gas stations out of business, over the past 12 months, according to oil-industry trade publication NPN Magazine.

But, as expected, the “victims” of the fuel prices are spred through other industries as well and here is a list of 10 less known “casualties”, published by Forbes:

Landscaping Industry. Trucks that average 10 mpg are used to tow lawn mowers and heavy equipment.

Independent Movers. “Deadhead” costs are putting a lot of independent movers out of business. “Deadhead” is when a truck drives empty hundreds of miles to pick up another load.

Children’s Camp Grounds. Parents now choose to camping programs closer to home.

Truck Drivers. A report says that 935 trucking companies with at least five trucks went out of business in the first quarter of this year.

Elderly Food Programs. Nearly 60% of ‘Meals On Wheels Association of America’ programs have lost volunteers who can’t afford gas.

Recreational Boating. With the average boat tank holding 90 gallons of gas (lasts for eight hours at modest speeds), most boaters are planning shorter trips.

Cab Drivers. The cost of driving a taxi has soared 38% in June 2008, compared with June 2006.

Independent Gas Station Owners. 3,000 stations closed over the past 12 months.

Volunteer Firefighters. According to The National Volunteer Firefighter Council, communities will probably see fewer volunteers responding to emergency calls, especially if the emergency occurs a good distance away.

Driving Schools. Driving schools are raising rates by as much as $20 to $50 per package and some of them dropped services like picking up and dropping off students at their homes.
Read More: "Less known ‘victims’ of $4 gas prices"

Forbes.com took United States’ 50 largest metro areas and looked at congestion, fuel costs, use of mass transit and carpools and commuting distances to determine which were the most affected by rising gasoline prices and calculate how much commuters pay each day to get to and from work. All fuel costs reflect May 1 prices.

The worst is for residents of Riverside and San Bernardino, cities which grew as part of the Los Angeles sprawl, where residents accepted the trade-off of cheaper housing for longer commutes. Not to mention the $3.91 per gallon gas price. Below is the full list.

City (per commuter per day)

1. Riverside-San Bernardino, Calif. ($7.61)
2. Atlanta, Ga. ($6.62)
3. Washington, D.C. ($6.32)
4. Miami, Fla. ($6.28)
5. Chicago ($6.23)
6. Birmingham, Ala. ($6.16)
7. Los Angeles, Calif. ($6.12)
8. Raleigh, N.C. ($6.10)
9. No. 9: Houston, Texas ($6.07)
10. Sacramento, Calif. ($6)

Read More: "US cities with the worst pain at the pump"