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 ...
High gas prices
Could it be gas price has about doubled since Obummer came in?
Hellish Africa-like economy coming, that’s why. It’s mostly here and gaining momentum.
Gas prices and crappy roads are probably the biggest factors. Anything to come out of UofM is tainted anyway.
Only 47% of the workforce is working full time, so FAR fewer people have to drive to work. Thanks to Hussein 0bama and his socialist regime.
It is a crowning achievement of his regime
Wish people around where I live drove less...Traffic is backed up everywhere, always until about 10:00 at night.
No money, no jobs, cars and gas are saved to get to whatever passes as work these days. No “green mind set” involved. Case closed.
Simple.
Gas prices, prices of cars (thus folks want to wear them out less), and when you’re unemployed, you have no where to go.
Honorable mention: live in a city like Cincinnati and the road condition sucks so bad you know it hurts your car to drive on it.
In the debate over high speed rail and bike lanes I hear liberals from Ann Arbor proudly proclaim that bicycles are the future of transportation.
I live a 40 minute drive from Ann Arbor and 20 from Jackson and these liberal idiots only respond with talking points about how wasteful rural drivers are. That’s ass backward anyway, rural drivers tend to make single combined trips.
Um. Barry is stealing everyone’s money. People are driving less because they can’t afford to buy gas. Who are these morons writing this garbage?
If the article mentioned the following then i missed it. Another reason that Americans are driving less is because many of them now have no jobs to drive to.
They drive less in Cuba too.
UN Agenda 21 is their goal. Everyone lives in a commune and can walk or ride a government bicycle if needed.
It’s more whistling in the dark by the Left. Less people in the workforce, between people who are unemployed, underemployed, on disability or have give up looking the true figure given by Forbes is 14.3%. That’s a lot of folks not driving. Add in the changes caused by gas hikes. Just one more sign of the lousy economy brought to us by the “BIG Zero” not some embrace of green principal by “the plebeians”.
Gas is more expensive. Fewer people in the workforce. I try to combine trips to save on fuel. I buy groceries and other sundries on the way home from work. Makes for an even longer, more tiring day, but it helps stretch the go-go juice.
Also, instead of shopping in brick-and-mortar stores, I buy as much as I can online. No lines, no crowds, free shipping. I love it. No wasting gas and if need be, I can shop at 2 AM.
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