Gas costs forcing drivers to cut back - Boston Globe [View All]

[Eugene]

Source: Boston Globe

Gas costs forcing drivers to cut back
Fuel consumption has declined in US

By Robert Gavin
Globe Staff / February 24, 2008

Gasoline prices have risen so high and stayed high for so long,
that Americans are finally doing what once seemed unthinkable:
driving less.

Inveterate drivers are carpooling, combining errands to eliminate
trips, trying mass transit, and even walking. As a result, gasoline
consumption, which grew steadily in recent years as prices
passed $2, $2.50, and $3 a gallon, has flattened and even
declined, according to the US Energy Department.

Average daily gasoline consumption in the United States has
decreased in each of the past four weeks from a year ago,
according to recent data. In the past six months, average daily
consumption slipped two-tenths of a percent from a year earlier,
after growing 2.5 percent in the previous year.

-snip-

"If a price spike is believed to be temporary, people won't make
these type of changes," Knittel said. "It's the sustained price
levels that are convincing consumers to make long-run decisions
that reduce demand."

-snip-

Read more: http://www.boston.com/business/personalfinance/articles/2008/02/24/gas_costs_forcing_drivers_to_cut_back