As gas costs climb, driving dwindles

Gasoline prices this week reached a new record average of $4.02 per gallon, according to the AAA Fuel Gauge Report.

Gas prices have broken a record $4-per-gallon average for the first time in the United States.

(Credit: AAA Fuel Gauge Report.)

Two-thirds of Americans have already changed how much they drive due to high prices at the pump, according to a poll commissioned by Access America Travel Insurance and Assistance.

Seventy-four percent of those polled said they would drive less, once gas hits $4 per gallon. Eighty-five percent said $5 costs per gallon would motivate driving changes.

The median price to spark a shift in driving habits was $3.20 per gallon, which was near the average several months ago. Gas prices have risen by 29 percent in a year, according to the American Automobile Association.

However, 9 percent of respondents said no amount of sticker shock at the pump would change the way the drive.

To save money, 26 percent of people surveyed said they'd reduce recreational driving, and 21 percent said they would try to run multiple errands at once. Only 7 percent named carpooling as an option, followed by 6 percent claiming that they would walk or bicycle more.

Among the first people to adjust the way they get around are those in homes earning less than $50,000, as well as Southerners, parents of children younger than 18, and "those saying the country is headed on the wrong track," according to Access America. Public transportation was favored most by people earning less than $25,000.

The telephone survey of 1,000 adults was conducted by Ipsos Public Affairs between May 30 and June 2.

Soaring gas costs could bring a boost to the makers of hybrid cars and of electric vehicles, which remain in limited production.

Dealers report a short supply for hybrids, which people are waiting months to buy.

In January, 44 percent of respondents to a survey told trade group Hybrid Owners of America that they would consider buying a hybrid, once gas topped $4 per gallon.

Diesel, at $4.79 per gallon, costs even more than gasoline, according to the AAA.

Prices have also skyrocketed in the past year for biodiesel and other biofuels, which are increasingly demonized for driving up food prices. Waste vegetable oil, which restaurant owners used to beg green gearheads to haul away for free, is fetching high prices.

Web sites including GasBuddy.com help locate less-expensive gas- and diesel-filling stations.

[fokkwp]

It's been so incredibly stupid to let gas prices rise to near the maximum that demand will allow, without building into the price a *large* slice of tax. Now it'll rise to something like $5 or whatever, and all these additional rises will go to Exxon, the Saudi royal family, Venezuela, and the like. If we had already embedded say $2 of tax in the price when it was back at $2 or so, then later when it peaked at $5 or whatever much of that money would be staying with us for transportation improvement, alternative energy, whatever we wanted. Instead it'll go to those guys. Nice job. Exxon can raise the price of gas and GM doesn't make a peep; instead it finally does the right thing and starts shutting down its SUV plants and reprioritizing its line. If we had raised gas prices with taxes instead, GM would have had its lobbyists pounding the halls of the state and Congress, who would have just folded. That giant sucking sound is our money going offshore, rather than into infrastructure investments for our kids' futures, thanks to corporations running the legislatures.

[anonseven]

Fascist liberal punitive taxation is hardly the correct answer for prices driven by supply shortages. Stupid liberals in Europe did exactly what you are suggesting, and now they are suffering even more.

Lower demand AND/OR MORE SUPPLY = Lower commodity prices. That is economics 101, the course that all liberal fascist taxmasters have flunked.

[Dalkorian]

by anonseven June 9, 2008 6:44 PM PDT
Fascist liberal punitive taxation ...
I love how you use the word "liberal" like a profanity when it's the repukes who got us into this mess. Or is fuhrer bushit a "liberal" now?

[jaggedpath]

It's all very easy to say on hindsight that a fuel tax should have been tacked on to the price of gas earlier on. Do you seriously think that, 1 or 2 years ago, any U.S. politician would have risked his/her political behind just to support the introduction of such a tax?

[OokiiMamoru]

It would have never happen.

[anonseven]

I went to the trouble to buy a flex-fuel vehicle to side-step gas price spikes, but alternate fuels have failed utterly to put even a dent into the global liquid fuels shortage.

fokkwp has suggested that even higher fuel prices to control demand are the answer to building sound energy policy through the usual litany of liberal solutions.

I have a different suggestion. If liberal fascists want to control energy usage through punitive taxes and carbon quotas, then I want something in return--we repeal the 16th amendment and all personal payroll taxes GO AWAY.

I'm sick and tired of disgusting liberal busy-bodies deciding new ways to control our lives because they know best and the rest of us are just too stupid to be trusted with the future.

[Dalkorian]

Well, look what trusting repukes has given us over the last 8 years. Terror. War. Torture. Illegal prisons. Gitmo. Then there's the price of oil and gas, the great condition the economy is in, the high value of the dollar. Yeah, you repukes have done a great job. Now is the time you blame Clinton for all this, even though it happened during fuhrer bushit's rule. Go ahead, make yourself look stupider. I dare you.

[anonseven]

I went to the trouble to buy a flex-fuel vehicle to side-step gas price spikes, but alternate fuels have failed utterly to put even a dent into the global liquid fuels shortage.

fokkwp has suggested that even higher fuel prices to control demand are the answer to building sound energy policy through the usual litany of liberal solutions.

I have a different suggestion. If liberal fascists want to control energy usage through punitive taxes and carbon quotas, then I want something in return--we repeal the 16th amendment and all personal payroll taxes GO AWAY.

I'm sick and tired of disgusting liberal busy-bodies deciding new ways to control our lives because they know best and the rest of us are just too stupid to be trusted with the future.

[rtuinenburg]

I love the fact the prices of fuel are skyrocketing, look at all the positive changes that are happening because of it. People are looking and building alternative energy sources, and people are starting to care about the environment. I think this is what we needed to put our butts in gear to do the right thing. Our dependency on oil is an addiction, and this will hopefully cut the habit. Our planet is at stake and it does not hurt to look at new energy sources. My personal favorite is Helium-3 but thats a ways off (2020). For now I would love to see an all electric vehicle that can do some real distance without any carbon footprint.

[George Orwellian]

If you think drivers are having sticker shock, how about the dawning realization that the end of consumer-class airline passenger tickets is upon us?



We need to roll out electric vehicles, and find a clean way to generate power to plug them in at night.



That can be a combination of nuclear plant (better start building them now), solar, wind, geothermal).



I wonder if there's a better way to take advantage of the sunlight out on the ocean. Floating units of solar panels, performing electrolysis to separate out hydrogen and oxygen to compress the hydrogen into canisters. Something to submerge everything if a storm comes...



Well, it's a lot of unused sunlight acreage.



--

Natural State Research

[suyts]

Wow, only on C/Net can we still find the obnoxious liberal who relishes in peoples pain and demand more. For all who think the high gas prices are a good thing, I'd bet your the same ones who cry about the state of our present economy when its state is a direct result of the anti-prosperity, anti-human policies liberal socialists have embraced. For those still blathering about carbon, check the numbers. There is no correlation between climate change and anthropogenic CO2. The earth is cooling and anthropogenic CO2 continues to increase. Just so we are all on the same page, driving isn't morally bad. It is a necessity that drives the worlds economy. Trucks must drive our goods from A to B so you liberals won't starve. The farmer must drive his tractor, combines, trucks and assorted equipment to feed the people. Trains need diesel to move commodities. Most people have to drive to work. From production plants to the liberals best friend the lawyer, people have to drive. High prices will not stop these things from happening. Alternative fuel sources are fine but there is no infrastructure in place (and won't be for another 20 years) to adequately supply man's needs. The solution is obvious. Drill more, refine more. You don't want to send your money overseas, great, I agree. We can do all of this here in the U.S.A.. We have the infrastructure in place, we just don't use it. While we're at it, let's start building more nukes and mining more coal to stave the cost of electricity. That price will soon mirror gasoline.

[johncwalker]

It is a sad commentary that we wealthy Americans would only adjust our abuse of the earth when it hits us personally in the pocketbook. The fact is that our oil gluttony is a key part of the reason oil prices have risen worldwide with the consequence of driving up food prices. Our world's extreme poor have been suffering from this for a while and now 100 million more of the world's extreme poor are being forced into hunger.

Thanks for sharing the earth's resources America!

[suyts2]

We do now, or haven't you seen how we actually give food to foreign nations. The reason oil prices are increasing is because all nations, not just the U.S. have increased their demand. Sadly, the U.S.'s failure was that we did not secure our own supply with the oil that sits underneath and around us. We have forbidden off-shore oil drilling in several areas in our territorial waters. We know oil is there. We have forbidden drilling in ANWR, we know oil is there. You are correct though, it is a sad commentary that some people here would cling to unproven environmental approaches so much so that they are willing to let thousands, if not millions starve and then blame people that had nothing to do with the policies now being enforced.

[roadsharing]

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