Just to chime in for Aust. I live in rural South Australia, THe price has just gone up to $1.52au/ L for petrol. In the nearest city (300 km away) the price reached $1.62au. The problem in the country here is once the price goes up it doesn't really go down again. Deisel is about $1.80/L, the problem with this is everything in Aus is transported by trucks, they then supposedly pass this on to their customers, which is then passed along again and being so far from a major centre it must be transported further.
I ride to work aswell, 7km there 7km home, it may not be that much but i figure that i would be saving about $20 in petrol for the week. We used to drive to Adelaide once to twice per month which cost about $30 each way in petrol, now it is about $40 each way. We do not go as often. Now the government here is talking about knocking off about 4cents/litre, what a joke, 4c/l saves about $2.50 for us when we fill our car from empty to full, about 65L.
Public transport is not an option either, it is there but only goes to the next town twice a day. To catch a bus to Adelaide costs $40 anyway so i might aswell drive. Even the PT in Adelaide is terrible, i have tried before and cannot work it out. My father in law who lives in Adelaide used to catch buses into the city, now he rides a motorbike, a lot more convenient and a lot cheaper.
I guess we are like America, we like big gas guzzlers and we have to drive everywhere. I would like to see Australia change but i cannot see it happening for a long time. There is now a lot of talk about bio-fuels, but this creates as many problems as it solves. Then there is the hybrid car, but these still use petrol. Ohwell petrol will be $2/L soon then people will really be screaming. It does not bother me anymore, i just fill up and don't even look at the price. It will be what it will be.