Nearly every major American city is surrounded by suburbs without trains/subways, and most of those people are driving 30-60 minutes (one way) every day for work.

It's not really reasonable to compare petrol prices between Europe and America because the requirements are so different.

If your gasoline prices double, you just skip some leisure activities. Maybe take public transport to work if you usually drive. If our gasoline prices rise, working people can no longer meet their monthly expenses...and there's no wiggle room. There's nothing left to cut back on. Certainly not the fuel that takes one to work in the first place.

I every other sense, I agree with you. I wish American cities were not this way. But they are.

Actually, I have done the conversion before! I’m a mathematician, it’s kind of my thing.

At the very least, I’m glad you guys (generally) have the luxury of shorter commutes and real public transportation infrastructure. So theoretically the price of fuel shouldn’t impact Europeans as much

Americans drive way, way more because of the layout of the entire country. It isn't like many countries where you can bike most places or take public transport, so many people are dependent on cars for a large part of their day. And the government heavily subsidizes gas, so the fact that the prices are increasing very dramatically are telling to even the Americans who don't understand economics or supply chains.

Yes but have you considered driving a your lifted pickup 50 miles down the worst freeway ever conceived by man to park it in your work parking lot for 8 hours?

The us is maaaany times bigger than Europe. And we have idiotic road designs and no trains. We drive a shit ton. The average is 10,000 miles a year. Per person.