To the chart you linked:
Posted on 07/27/2013 3:42:24 PM PDT by Red in Blue PA
It may not seem like there are fewer traffic jams, and the gas station probably looks busier than ever every time you stop to fill up. But a new study shows that Americans are in fact driving less. We're seeing a steady shift in how people get around, with more people leaving their keys at home and finding other ways to get around. "This is an important change," said Michael Sivak, who conducted the study at the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute. "This is the first time we've ever seen a drop like this."
According to the study, driving in the U.S. reached a peak in 2004 and has been declining steadily ever since. "When you look at the distance-driven rate, we are where we were back in the mid-90s," Sivak said. In 2011, the most recent year for which data are available, the average licensed driver racked up 12,492 miles behind the wheel. That's down 1,221 miles, or 8.9 percent, from the peak seven years earlier.
(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
Gasoline sales are certainly interesting, but they don't know what we're driving. These are wild-a** estimates. I simply caution against thinking they're solid numbers.
I have friends in town and they don’t shop for groceries. They make a half dozen trips to various restaurants and stores every day.
It’s because Obama and Buffett have been raping American’s wallets for four years now.
This is by design. Too much freedom of movement.
Here’s my take:
1. Life style choices of the younger generation who would rather live in the now safe cities than commute to the ‘burbs.
2. Baby boomer retirements.
3. High gas prices.
4. Work from home is more acceptable.
5. Downsizing to a place closer to work.
I just changed the oil in my SUV after two years and driving all of 5,700 miles in that period.
Obamanomics.
Unless it's a Tea Party rally.
Fewer jobs means less miles on a car. Liberal elites are flying more... and university researchers aren’t as smart as they used to be...
What are the auto theft stats?
I’m afraid a time is coming when people will have to barricade themselves in their homes and try to hold off the hordes.
“People are more inclined than ever to withdraw to their little virtual world...”
AMEN! Who wants to deal with the “New Amerika” anymore than they possibly have to?
The idiots here in Michigan are busy trying to stop the upgrades to the Embridge pipeline which will carry at least some of that oil to Sarnia just across the border from Port Huron.
Look to the unemployment rate of teens and twentysomethings, as a group they’re driving less because they can’t afford to drive any more than necessary, or can’t even afford a car at all.
Look to the other end of the demographic scale and you’ll see the largest age cohort in the country beginning to enter retirement, and therefore driving less.
Look to what often is the only area population growth, illegal immigration from south of the border, and you see them piling in ten to a car, working the same place, living piled ten to a two bedroom apartnent.
Of course miles driven is down. Gas isn’t, go figure.
Just another instance of decline in the American lifstyle.
People are driving less because they can’t afford to drive more.
See the USA in your Chevrolet?
High gas prices, People cannot afford to go on vacation. (Only Obama and his family can afford that).People now make a list instead of just making a trip to the store.
My wife and I used to go for a drive on Sunday—stopped that, can’t afford it. Stopped visiting relatives that live any distance away, can’t afford it. I used my boat once so far this year, Can’t afford it. I would sell it but no one else can afford it either.
To the chart you linked:
That might depend on where you happen to reside...
Here in commie MA, they are paving my local "shovel-ready" highway probably for the third time in 5 years. Gotta keep up the flow of union money to political coffers... Everywhere you turn in this state, you see roads being grooved and paved... and then, a year later, the cycle starts up again.
Gee, looking at that picture reminded me of Obamacare!
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It gives me a headache to think about getting out of the house and having to look at all the weirdos, unkempt food handlers in restaurants, and all the junk for purchase in the stores. Enjoying home sweet home more and more!
Let’s get serious. Amount of miles driven per year is down because:
1. Gasoline is twice as expensive as it was in 2009
2. The real unemployment rate is somewhere north of 10%
3. People are hunkered down scared as hell, wondering what will happen next.
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