US Reduction in Car Driving?

[gwd]

"According to the Department of Transportation, Americans drove 11 billion miles less in March 2008 than a year earlier, the first time estimated travel on public roads fell in March since 1979.

The data marks the sharpest year-on-year drop for any month in the history of the agency's reporting, which dates back to 1942."


http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSWBT00904320080523?feedType=RSS&feedName=domesticNews

See there we Americans can change our wasteful ways.

[Platy]

The article says its down 4.3% year over year.

I doubt there are many newly car free folks out there yet. You can get 4.3% by simple measures like combining errands. I know one guy who now leaves his diesel F-350 parked as much as possible by carpooling to his job.

It's been a long time since anyone said anything at all negative to me about riding a bike or living car free.

[wahoonc]

I don't doubt there has been a reduction in driving...I have managed to reduce mine by about 400 miles a week for the interim by riding Amtrak home on weekends. However I suspect the greatest reduction has been in longer trips and canceled vacations. People are STILL driving to the corner store for the supersized sodas and chips. I found an interesting website today dealing with infrastructure improvements to help get people out of their cars, called Complete the Streets (http://www.completestreets.org/).

Aaron:)

[Newspaperguy]

I'm interested in anything that cuts gasoline consumption including:

Carpooling, where available and practical
Using public transportation, where available and practical
Walking and using non-motorized transportation
Switching to a more efficient vehicle
Keeping vehicles properly maintained
Planning trips to combine several errands at once
Arranging schedules to save travel time
Taking close-to-home vacations
Moving closer to work, school or commonly-used amenities

And there are many other ways to cut fuel use. Those of us who have already gone to car-free or car-light living can help to lead the way for those who will need to learn from us in the years to come.

[Platy]

According to this article, demotorization is occurring in Japan, particularly among young people.

Simply translated, kuruma banare means "demotorization" — a trend that has been affecting the Japanese auto market since 1990. While many factors have contributed to the demotorization of Japan, the biggest reason for the decline is that the youth have fallen out of love with the automobile.

Instead of saving up for a car, more and more young buyers are spending their money on the latest mobile phones and home computers. Between 2000 and 2005, spending on cars per household per year fell by 14 percent to $600, while internet spending and mobile phone subscriptions increased by 39 percent to $1,500, according to Newsweek.

And the younger the demographic, the more skewed the results. As Kimiyuki Suda — a 34 year old executive at an Internet-services company — put it, "having a car is so 20th century."

http://www.leftlanenews.com/japans-kuruma-banare-dramatically-decreasing-new-car-sales.html

[gerv]

The article says its down 4.3% year over year.

I doubt there are many newly car free folks out there yet. You can get 4.3% by simple measures like combining errands. I know one guy who now leaves his diesel F-350 parked as much as possible by carpooling to his job.

It's been a long time since anyone said anything at all negative to me about riding a bike or living car free.

I do notice some of the Ford truck drivers I work with (ie, programmers driving huge trucks....:crash:) are starting to behave a little more defensively. They seem to be thinking about new strategies to save some money, like moving to smaller vehicles or even ... get this...driving less.

Yes, and I have noticed recently that my fellow workers no longer treat me with complete disdain. In fact, the bike rack in the back of the building is usually full.

[Tabor]

However I suspect the greatest reduction has been in longer trips and canceled vacations. People are STILL driving to the corner store for the supersized sodas and chips.

This is what I don't get. I like having a car, I don't think I really want to get rid of my car (ZipCar is just too expensive). But I will ride my bike to work and/or the store so that I have money left to drive the the coast or the mountains on the weekend. Cancel trips? No way.

[wahoonc]

This is what I don't get. I like having a car, I don't think I really want to get rid of my car (ZipCar is just too expensive). But I will ride my bike to work and/or the store so that I have money left to drive the the coast or the mountains on the weekend. Cancel trips? No way.

I don't get it either, but suspect it is a knee jerk reaction to the higher fuel prices and the financially overburdened. They look at the big things but miss the obvious in the small details.

Aaron:)

[ilmooz]

Besides gasoline, jet fuel prices are spiking airfare costs.The lead story on the local news this morning is all about crowds of people hopping on Amtrak trains and Greyhound buses to save on Memorial Day weekend traveling expenses.

[dynodonn]

The wife and I are not cancelling any trips this year due to high fuel prices, more due to the fact that we want to use our vacation time this year to do home improvements that we've been putting off and now have the money to do(bicycling played a factor in contributing to the house fund). We will still make a few trips out of town, but just for two or three days at the most.

[derath]

I don't doubt there has been a reduction in driving...I have managed to reduce mine by about 400 miles a week for the interim by riding Amtrak home on weekends. However I suspect the greatest reduction has been in longer trips and canceled vacations. People are STILL driving to the corner store for the supersized sodas and chips. I found an interesting website today dealing with infrastructure improvements to help get people out of their cars, called Complete the Streets (http://www.completestreets.org/).

Aaron:)

Do you really think the super short drive to the corner store is really a contributing factor? I mean I know it is fun to make it sound like everyone in a car is a fat junk food junkie who drives 10 feet to see his neighbor. But really you could easily have probably 100 people make that trip to the corner store and they would not contribute as much as the one suburbanite who spends 60 min each way commuting to work.

-D

[mjoemoon]

All this and yet...
I went for a ride last night and my path led me past the local middle school where a dance was being held. Many parents were lined up in their cars waiting to pick up their kids and about every 3rd or 4th car was idling. Most of the "idlers" were large suvs!

[Newspaperguy]

Do you really think the super short drive to the corner store is really a contributing factor? I mean I know it is fun to make it sound like everyone in a car is a fat junk food junkie who drives 10 feet to see his neighbor. But really you could easily have probably 100 people make that trip to the corner store and they would not contribute as much as the one suburbanite who spends 60 min each way commuting to work.

-D
The hour-long commute is obviously a much bigger factor than the short jaunt to get a few litres of milk. But when Joe Commuter decides he's frustrated with the amount of driving he's doing, the easiest way to start to make a difference is to limit the number of short trips. If he can cut back on enough of the short trips or if he begins planning his errands on the way home from work, he'll cut back on his driving time and will notice the fuel savings. Once changes are made in this area, he may begin to consider other fuel-saving alternatives which he hadn't thought about before.

[wahoonc]

Do you really think the super short drive to the corner store is really a contributing factor? I mean I know it is fun to make it sound like everyone in a car is a fat junk food junkie who drives 10 feet to see his neighbor. But really you could easily have probably 100 people make that trip to the corner store and they would not contribute as much as the one suburbanite who spends 60 min each way commuting to work.

-D

Yes in more ways in one, as Newspaperguy has pointed out. Also cars pollute the most and get the worst mileage when they are first cranked up and not fully warm. It also when the greatest engine wear occurs. Bad form on all fronts. If you eliminate all trips under 5 miles you can get a substantial increase in overall mileage on the average car. My big truck gets about 11 mpg in dedicated city driving. Highway is about 16 mpg. A small car isn't going to be quite as drastic.

Aaron:)

[gerv]

One fact will probably drive a reduction. Many drivers are now spending over $400 a month in gasoline, up from $200 a couple of years ago. There is almost no way the majority of them can continue to spend at that rate. If you look at many multiple car households and the current driving patterns, it hard to believe there wouldn't be some sort of reduction. The question is how much of a reduction?

Here's a chart for the average US, per-capita usage of gasoline in 2004. (http://www.energy.ca.gov/gasoline/statistics/gasoline_per_capita.html) Remember... this is every man, woman and child! Multiply the gallons listed by $4 (price of gas currently) and then by 4 again (as an example of a typical US family). US average in 2004 was 464 gallons per year.

[sykerocker]

All this and yet...
I went for a ride last night and my path led me past the local middle school where a dance was being held. Many parents were lined up in their cars waiting to pick up their kids and about every 3rd or 4th car was idling. Most of the "idlers" were large suvs!

And it's going to take a fair bit of time before this situation really sinks in to society in general - which is something a lot of posters in the group don't seem to (want to?) understand.

It may make a lot of sense to you, at the moment gas starts to rise you immediately cut back driving severely. But then again, cars aren't exactly your favorite mode of transportation now, are they?

Conversely, we're talking a society wedded to cars. People who are having a very difficult time wrapping their brains around the concept of walking, biking, or only allowing themselves one vehicular trip per day.

Now, add in an additional factor: Back in the '73 and '79 gas crunches, the majority of gasoline purchases were paid for by reaching into the wallet and pulling out greenbacks. The hit on your spending ability was immediate and total. Nowadays, the majority of gasoline purchases are made by credit card. And if the month's gas total is a bit more than you budgeted for (assuming one even budgets - a rapidly fading talent), you just carry the balance over.

There's a lot more additional credit card debt being rung up by fools not cutting back their driving to match what they can afford in gasoline purchases. Of course, this opinion is being written by a tight-a**ed bookkeeper who hasn't paid a penny in credit card interest in over twenty years. :lol:

[lksfirecapt]

I think the drop would have been significantly more had there been a better mass-transit system in place. Unlike Europe we have neglected our mass transit system so severly that we have few choices other than driving.

I made the choice to go mass transit last month, but in order for me to get from Temecula (Southwest Riverside County) to Lakeside (Eastern San Diego County) I need to go clear to the coast to catch the train. My commute starts at 4:00 AM and ends at 7:30 AM. Normally this is a 90 minute commute. Getting home is a bigger problem in that no bus goes all the way home so I have a 15 mile bike ride to fill the gap.

Had there been a well supported mass transit system I think the reduction would have been more like 15-20%.

[gwd]

The article says its down 4.3% year over year.

I doubt there are many newly car free folks out there yet. You can get 4.3% by simple measures like combining errands. I know one guy who now leaves his diesel F-350 parked as much as possible by carpooling to his job.

It's been a long time since anyone said anything at all negative to me about riding a bike or living car free.

Well, today I biked to a local picnic spot. I've been there on memorial day Sunday for the past few years and in the past it isn't very crowded and the weather has been very nice just like today. Today it was jam packed. I met two local people who both said they had never been there before. One canceled his planned five hour car trip to do something local. I know they won't be going car free but this guy reduced his weekend driving substantially. Saturday I went to another local park, I'd never seen it that crowded and I'd been there on many nice spring days. If this is the future - people packed in cheek by jowl at my favorite neighborhood spots- bring back the car culture and give me back my elbow room. The guy that canceled his 5 hour drive grew up in the city and had never been to the park. Another strange thing was that many people arrived by bike, the parking lot wasn't packed just the picnic area. The park service might want to expand the picnic area by shrinking the parking lot.

[wahoonc]

Well, today I biked to a local picnic spot. I've been there on memorial day Sunday for the past few years and in the past it isn't very crowded and the weather has been very nice just like today. Today it was jam packed. I met two local people who both said they had never been there before. One canceled his planned five hour car trip to do something local. I know they won't be going car free but this guy reduced his weekend driving substantially. Saturday I went to another local park, I'd never seen it that crowded and I'd been there on many nice spring days. If this is the future - people packed in cheek by jowl at my favorite neighborhood spots- bring back the car culture and give me back my elbow room. The guy that canceled his 5 hour drive grew up in the city and had never been to the park. Another strange thing was that many people arrived by bike, the parking lot wasn't packed just the picnic area. The park service might want to expand the picnic area by shrinking the parking lot.

I can think of a lot of places that needs to happen...like every freakin' strip mall in America!:thumb:

Aaron:)

[gerv]

Another strange thing was that many people arrived by bike, the parking lot wasn't packed just the picnic area.

Surely you hallucinated this. What country do you live in?

[gwd]

Surely you hallucinated this. What country do you live in?

DC. The park is just a few miles from Georgetown. A friend who with his wife owns 4 vehicles and normally takes his hot motorbike out on Sunday drives arrived by bicycle. I invited him to stop by after his Sunday morning motorcycle ride and he showed up on his dusty 1990's vintage mountain bike. "Nah, I felt like getting on the bicycle this morning." Whats up with a dedicated motorsport fanatic not taking his usual early Sunday ride on a beautiful clear day? He only bought the mountain bike when it was a fad. In the last 5 years I may have put more miles on his bike than he has- I borrow it for camping trips sometimes. If he put smooth tires and fenders on it, it would be a fun city bike, great brakes, precise handling. Something is going on in DC. Another woman at the picnic was telling how her daughter bought a mountain bike and the bike sat unused for years- until this week when the daughter rode it to the store.

[smurfy]

A machinist at work is now a regular bike commuter. He lives only four miles from work but for the first time in my 13 years of bike commuting another co-worker is commuting on a regular basis.:thumb:

I'm planning on doing some organized overnight rides but where the starting point is fairly close. I don't want to have to drive 150 miles to ride a bike! Speaking of which, I have a van so I'm trying to organize something where we can carpool to bike-riding venues.

[Suzie Green]

Of course, all this reduction in automotive miles will result in smaller gasoline sales for the oil companies. In turn, the increased inventories of petroleum stores will result in lower gas prices, followed by a collective sigh of relief as people once again drive more miles. The scene then repeats itself, ad infinitum. We went through this during the 1973 oil embargo and didn't learn our lesson back then obviously. "When we don't learn from the past we are doomed to repeat it."

[Newspaperguy]

Of course, all this reduction in automotive miles will result in smaller gasoline sales for the oil companies. In turn, the increased inventories of petroleum stores will result in lower gas prices, followed by a collective sigh of relief as people once again drive more miles. The scene then repeats itself, ad infinitum. We went through this during the 1973 oil embargo and didn't learn our lesson back then obviously. "When we don't learn from the past we are doomed to repeat it."
But will it happen like this? The 1973 oil embargo was a political event; the skyrocketing prices of today are the result of some dramatic changes at an economic level. More people around the world are buying and using oil. The demand is way up but the supply is not increasing. Even if everyone in the United States were to go car-free overnight, the demand is increasing fast enough in other parts of the world, particularly in Asia, to offset the effects of this behaviour change.