Most drivers now shrug off soaring gas prices, adjust driving habits only slightly

[DeepModem Mom]

NYT: Drivers Shrug as Gasoline Prices Soar
By CLIFFORD KRAUSS
Published: March 30, 2007

.... as Americans enter the sixth year of rising oil and gasoline prices, their shift in driving habits this time has been much less extensive. What’s more, in recent weeks, gas consumption has gone up, not down, and drivers are changing their daily driving habits only slightly....

A recent study that Christopher Knittel, an economics professor at the University of California, Davis, helped write showed that every time from November 1975 to November 1980 that gasoline prices went up 20 percent, consumers changed their driving behavior by cutting gas consumption by 6 percent per capita nationwide.

But from March 2001 to March 2006, drivers reduced consumption just 1 percent when prices rose 20 percent....

While more and more consumers around the country are buying smaller, more-efficient cars and fewer S.U.V.s, that trend is unfolding a lot more slowly these days than 30 years ago. It was a very different era back then, when Congress was willing to enact tougher gasoline standards and when President Jimmy Carter called on the country “to live thriftily” and “find ways to adjust and to make our society more efficient.”...

***

Economists say the increasing demand for gasoline and the muted reaction among drivers are related to many factors, all having enormous policy implications as the Bush administration and Congress try to find ways to stem climate change and oil imports, which now supply about 60 percent of American needs.

Experts note that commuters are driving longer distances to work because of suburban sprawl, that improvements in mass transit have fallen behind over the years and that driving to malls and ferrying children around has become part of the American lifestyle. Some suggest that with more dual-income families, high gas prices mean less to many families than they once did, and credit cards have eased the immediate pain at the pump....

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/30/business/30gas.html

[Warren Stupidity]

1. the dislocation has just begun.

Give it a chance to fully develop. Wait until shortages and 2-3x price spikes hit the road. It should be fun.

[tridim]

2. Unfuckingbelievable on so many levels..

Why didn't the Times mention the 6 years of massive record profits the oil company CEOs are pocketing?

[azmouse]

3. We're used to being a mobile society

and it's going to take a huge wake up call for people to change their habits. I wish the high prices could achieve that but it appears not to.

Unfortunately we've gotten used to the current prices (just over $3/gal in my area - Phoenix).
It's the frog in cool water syndrome... heat the water gradually and the frog will happily boil to death without ever knowing what happened.

[Skidmore]

5. I think people are aware that something is happening.

However, the basic problem is that over the years our places of living have been set up to encourage the use of the automobile, and in our area, people have to drive an average of 25 miles away from home for employment that can provide a living wage. We're living on one paycheck now, and can't afford a different car, much less a new hybrid. We have no bus service out here or train to take us into the urban areas. A lot of the middle of America is like this, and the government and industry have worked together for decades to keep it that way.

[azmouse]

7. Most people seem to only be outraged that the oil companies

are making such huge profits. They don't seem to see that their way of life is causing the problem.

It's denial. Denial that the gas guzzling behemoth SUV's are a problem. Denial that jobs located an hour away and no public transit are a problem.

People will stay in denial until they are forced to do something. And with idiot oilmen in the WH nothing will be done. It's the old Raygun belief of 'don't worry, be happy'. * just tells us to go shopping.
Rome burns and we all fiddle.

And I have to admit that I'm not doing all I can but I am waking up to the problem... and I thank DU for making me not only more aware but beginning to be active in changing my habits.

[Selatius]

15. There is a lot of truth to what you say. American cities are built for cars, not pedestrians.

Cities of Europe are lucky in that many were built before cars. Even if that weren't the case, the fact is countries like Germany, France, and the UK invested in an extensive mass transit system. They have bullet trains, light rail, a fleet of city buses, street trolleys. We have the interstate and a chronically underfunded Amtrak that can't go above 70 mph because of the condition of many of these derelict rail tracks.

[Wilber_Stool]

4. But raise the price with a tax and use the money

to develop alternative sources and people would burn down the White House. Imagine if we had done this in '78. We'd be living in a different world buy now.

[DeepModem Mom]

6. If only.... nt

[Robbien]

8. Headlines are being used to form the opinion, not report reality

People are pissed. I know it. I see it every day, at the pump, on the road, geeze even in the library.

People are pissed about this.

The wealthy may be shrugging, but to the rest of us it matters.

[Jim Warren]

9. Bingo! RE: Headlines are being used to form the opinion

The corporate media is used to "float" the ideas just before they are to become reality to assuage the consumers. I've been hearing little news blurbs in the last few days citing "tensions with Iran" about "$3 a gallon soon" and "possible $4 a gallon with any disruptions".

[Javaman]

26. if moron* attacks Iran gas will be $4 if we are outrageously lucky...

bank on it to be over 5 buck.

if the rumor of a missile attack on Iran triggered the oil price to jump 5 bucks, what do you think a full on attack would do to oil prices?

Get the bicycle tuned up...

[SoCalDem]

10. Surprised? Who calls their boss and says:

"Um Mr so-and-so?.. This is (your name here) calling. I cannot afford the gas to get to work next week, so I won't be coming in".


...

People MUST have their jobs, and for MANY, there are NOT comparable jobs in their community, so they cut back elsewhere.

Fewer trips to home Depot
Fewer movies with the kids
Fewer trips to favorite restaurants
Not gonna buy those new appliances
Not gonna revamp that backyard now
No new furniture
No new carpet
No new car

It's the REAL "Trickle Down" economy in action.

And as these folks cut back because gasoline has TRIPLED in price over three years, they use their plastic cards more than ever, so they just get further behind...

[Rosemary2205]

24. Exactly.

You'll see even Walmart having financial trouble as America stops consuming so they can afford the gas.

[leftyclimber]

11. Some of us

have simply run out of things to adjust. We can't afford to move to higher-rent areas (in my town rent, at minimum, doubles when you move into the areas on the bus lines, which is hella more expensive than feeding the beast, unfortunately), we can't afford to purchase hybrid cars (my current car gets 30 MPG, and my SO and I share it rather than being a two-car household), and the only times we are driving are to go to work, to go home, to detour on the way home to get groceries when we need them, and to pick up and drop off my SO's child for visitation every other weekend, meeting his ex at a halfway point.

What, exactly, am I supposed to cut back on now, when we're already so financially strapped that a good month leaves me with $5 after I've paid all the bills? I already carpool. I don't do any "extravagant" (read: unnecessary) driving. I don't live in a bicycle-safe area. I can't afford to move closer into town, because of typical college-town cost of living.

I'm just shit out of things to cut back on at this point, unless I win the lottery.

[Robbien]

13. See, that is the story I keep hearing. Not this shrugging of shoulders

headlines keep reporting.

[leftyclimber]

17. I don't think many people are shrugging.

I think we're at wit's end.

[Selatius]

18. Unfortunately, the problem is no real mass transit and cities built for cars, not pedestrians.

You have cities built for sprawl and a trend that is moving towards abolishing rent control in urban areas. It's the perfect fuck-up of all time.

[leftyclimber]

20. And rural areas

generally don't have transit, or if they do, it's usually called the "old people van to the Senior Center," which, while good for the seniors, doesn't help the rest of us out much.

[Selatius]

27. Rural areas are suffering horribly due to lack of mass transit.

Many small municipalities simply don't have the tax revenue to support a fleet of mass transit buses, nor do they have the funds to set up light-rail systems to move people and goods.

There must be a reconstruction program for America to rebuild the transit system in America. If America were dumb enough to establish the interstate highway system and junk mass transit systems and spend hundreds of billions of dollars laying down interstate roads, then the only consolation is that at least we know we are not afraid to spend large quantities of money in fixing a problem.

[Selatius]

12. Corporate America and Corporate News want OBEDIENT WORKERS and OBEDIENT CONSUMERS.

Keep buying, America. Go back to sleep, America. We got it all under control. Obey. Just accept the high gas prices and Exxon-Mobil's record-breaking profit margins and accept low fuel efficiency standards and big-ass SUVs.

[Jim Warren]

14. really

This headline should read "Most americans now remain asleep, adjust trance habits only slightly"

[Roland99]

16. We are mere frogs being slowly boiled. Gas will have to hit $5-6/gal in the US

before the lemmings dump their Suburban Assault Vehicles and learn to conserve energy in add'l ways, recycle, and support alternative energy.

[guitar man]

19. I've adjusted my driving habits radically

I bought a motorcycle in September '05, just after Katrina when prices went through the roof. I even ride it in the rain sometimes when I'm short enough on blood, er, gas money. We have a trip consolidation policy at our house now, as in make a kist and get everything we need in one trip if at all possible. And, the pickup truck doesn't move unless absoultely necessary.

We simply cannot afford to buy any more of this high priced gas than we absolutely have to. Adjusted slightly my ass, that's for the folks with a lot more dough than me!

[Squatch]

21. I made a huge adjustment to my driving habits.

(I started riding my bike to work)

[Johonny]

22. interesting

"credit cards have eased the immediate pain at the pump"

Is the suggestion that because people now use cards at the pump instead of gas they don't realize the effect the prices are having on their debt?

[noonwitch]

23. I thought about it big-time when I bought my car in 2005

I bought a Focus because it gets good mileage. Also, it's one of the cheaper cars Ford makes, so I could get one with extra features, like a 6 disc cd player and heated seats (those things are great).

[Tsiyu]

25. I spoke to a retail manager today

who said that they are losing sales due to gas prices. She said many customers were calling ahead to see if items were there or to get the specs on items before driving out to the store.

Customers are less willing to just show up, which lowers impulse buying and also increases the amount of time employees must spend handling phone calls.