Friday, February 20, 2009

Less Driving, Wrong reason

An article from Rueters, here, states that for the 14th month in a row, Americans are driving less. The drop in driving, however, is slowing because of lower gas prices. While this could be seen as a good thing, I'll be cynical here and view this for what it most likely is. People are only driving less because they are losing their jobs; no job means no commuting. It also means less money for consumer goods, so less trips to the mall. People probably aren't changing their behavior, they just have nowhere to go, and less money to spend.

Ironically, this also means that state and local government are generating less money from gas taxes, exacerbating the budget crunch.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I bike commute daily all year round in San Jose, CA. When gas was $4.50/gal, it was great how may people started took to bike commuting at my defense company. Bike commuting keeps the air clean, does not burn any of that foreign oil, costs less, a improves your health.

As soon as the gas prices went down people got back in there cars and the bike rack were mostly empty.

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