American Motorists Pay More, Drive Less
While energy ministers and diplomats wrangle over the supply side of high oil prices, Americans are already tackling the demand side. USA Today reports that Americans drove 22b fewer miles in November – April compared to the same period in '06 – '07. That's the biggest drop since the Iranian Revolution in 1979 – '80. Sticking with the stats, miles driven has fallen by one percent, down to 2005 levels. Way back then, there were eight million fewer [documented] U.S. citizens. So… U.S. drivers are cutting back by considerably more than the one percent average. According to Federal Highway Administration data, the sharpest declines are taking place on rural roads. Marilyn Brown says Americans have concluded that the "the era of cheap energy is a thing of the past." The Professor of energy policy at Georgia Tech says she thinks "the difference between now and 1979, when prices were comparable when you adjust for inflation, is there's a sense of sustained pain."
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Kind of surprising this... In Europe, especially the Netherlands and some other countries, fuel prices have been and still are considerably higher than in the US for decades now, yet for decades, this hasn't affected the amount of cars sold/miles driven... People need/want to drive cars no matter what. Maybe a case of subjective utility though, I guess you reach a certain point where incremental price raises have less of an impact... There's not much buzz going on either about fuel prices anymore, although it's always slumbering right below the surface, which became especially obvious when our recently elected left wing government (and we would consider democrats right wing, so that means something) decided it was a good idea to raise diesel taxes with an additional 3 cents/liter. Well done guys, really in touch with your citizens there...
"In other words, we only see it getting worse not better. Of course the general devaluation of the dollar, an economy on a downward swing, and a real estate market in free fall could have something to do with it." As does a relentless drumbeat of negativism from the media: "Doom! Doom! Doom! Things are rotten and can only get worse!" Folks need a sense of perspective. One of my wife's kin recently sighed, "High gas prices have just about ruined our lives." Ruined? Because it takes an extra twenty bucks to pull your $20,000 travel trailer to the lake? Jeez, people don't know what hard times are.