Miscellaneous ramblings about being on the road

The above photo was taken two days ago during a trip across Washington state. Gas prices had come down from the previous week, when I paid a low of $4.89 and a high of $6.09 per gallon for regular unleaded gasoline.

Those prices are not just a product of the Iran war. Washington has the third-highest gas taxes in the U.S. behind California and Pennsylvania. And as of July 1, our tax will go up 2 percent to $56.6 per gallon. That’s on top of federal taxes, which are $18.4 cents for gasoline (Cornfield, 2026).

These taxes have pushed Washington’s gas price to an average of $5.32 per gallon as of Tuesday (Cornfield, 2026). However, the AAA (2026) reports that the urban west side of the state has higher prices than the rural east side. Here is another cost advantage to moving to Spokane on the east side from Olympia on the west side.

Lately my NextDoor feed has been filled with complaints about Washington’s gas tax, particularly from folks who consider climate change to be a “hoax.” Washington’s gas tax is so high because the state has a “cap-and-invest” program intended to help lower the state’s greenhouse gas emissions by 95 percent by 2050 (DOE, 2026).

The propaganda war has thus far been one-sided enough that I would not be surprised if there is another attempt to repeal that state’s Climate Commitment Act. Only two years ago voters rejected by a lopsided 62-to-38 percent margin an initiative that would have unplugged the legislation (Cornfield, 2024).

I share all this with you to illustrate how the states have become the focus point for climate change legislation now that the Trump administration and congressional Republicans have dramatically rolled back federal policies.

Looking at traffic from both sides now

One of the curious things that can happen when you live in a place long enough is that you stop noticing basic stuff around you. For example, the above photo is fairly typical traffic in the greater-Seattle area almost regardless of the time of day. It’s just something you live with.

Now that I am living on the east side of the state, my attitude is starting to shift. Sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic for sometimes hours on end no longer feels “normal” — and acceptable.

That’s because the east side is mostly rural. One result is that Interstate 90 tends to have fairly light traffic — mainly long-haul trucks. Of course, there is an occasional jacked up F-150 whose driver seems to think that it is his god-given right to go an unimpeded 100 mph. However, it is easy enough to get out of his way once I am down from the mountain passes.

I suppose that people who are used to urban driving might find the wide-open spaces of I-90 boring. It’s mostly a long ribbon of highway through high desert and farmland. Even tiny hamlets are so few and far between that the truckers tend to congregate for the night at state-run rest stops.

The other day a commentator on Spokane’s NextDoor channel complained about traffic in the city. It can be intense enough that I avoid driving on main arterials during rush hour. That said, our traffic is nothing compared to the urban west side of the state. The sheer number of cars clogging the Seattle area’s roads is massively — massively — greater. That’s somehow supposed to represent the good life?

Share your reactions to this post with a comment below or a note to the editor.

---

RE:SOURCES

• AAA; 2026. “Washington Average Gas Prices.” Accessed June 25.
• Cornfield, Jerry; 2024. “Voters reject measure to repeal landmark Washington climate law.” Washington State Standard. Posted Nov. 5.
• ——; 2026. “Washington’s gas tax is going up, but state transportation revenue is falling short.” Washington State Standard. Posted June 24.
• DOE; 2026. “Climate Commitment Act.” Washington State Department of Ecology. Page accessed June 25.;