06.18.2008 4:00 pm
Americans are driving less
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
The U.S. Department of Transportation reports today that for the sixth month in a row, Americans are driving less than they were last year. Crazy gasoline prices are making us reconsider how much and how far we drive. A corresponding surge in transit use also has us putting fewer miles on their vehicles.
Americans drove 1.4 billion fewer highway miles in April 2008 than the same month last year (a 1.8 percent decrease), and 400 million miles fewer than they had in March.
Sales of midside SUV’s were down last month 38 percent over May 2007. Smaller, more fuel-efficient vehiles plus less driving equals more money to spend on other things, like more expensive food.
This is good news. It means that Americans are responding to market forces which should make a big dent in our country’s demand for oil. How were the sales figures for the other gas guzzlers? (i.e. Pickups, Full Size Vans, Minivans, High End Luxury Sedans, High Performance cars?)
The federal government didn’t include information on really large vehicles, like Hummers or Escalades. But it did say that sales of cars — which had accounted for less than half of sales in 2007 — rose to 57 percent of all vehicles sold in May.