4 ms·

How many gas stations are in the United States?

• lowglow 15y ago
  I like these types of questions, but I've never been given one. How did you respond? Here's my take: My first inclination would be to think about all the gas stations in my neighborhood, and all of those I pass as I travel somewhere. The gas stations start to spread out the further from civilization I go, but I've never gone more than a quarter to half a tank of gas before seeing another. (I have a phobia about running out of gas in the middle of nowhere.) But the difficult part it is thinking about how gas stations are set up. There is definitely a relationship between population density and gas station count. The less people, the less gas stations -- but conversely there seems to be a point where the population is so saturated (SF proper) that gas stations are scarce inside the city. But maybe I just think that because of the relative distances I'm traveling. Inside the city I'm walking and see less gas stations, but outside the city I'm driving and covering a longer distance in the same amount of time and see more gas stations. Also, we seldom see huge lines at the gas stations which means they are plentiful enough to service all available commuting cars without significant queue. If there are just enough to service cars without a queue, maybe we can say this (naively): X number of people in the US. Three people per family, so X/3 = Y number of cars. (A lot of families have more than one car, I know) If each gas station has an average of Z pumps and is utilized constantly at an average of W% through the day, we need at least Y * Z * W% gas stations to service everyone appropriately.