"And not someone living in rural southwestern Virginia (or pick your place of choice) who commutes (with his three or four riders) a hundred miles or so every day."
Typically, the wear and tear on a car is more expensive than the fuel, ie, 20 cents a mile. Someone driving 100 miles a day is making a $20 trip each day.
More than forty years have passed since the last time I was a rider making that sort of trip. Wear and tear (and certainly not the price of gas) wasn't much of a consideration. The driver took on riders (a buck a day) to pay for the gas, keep him company, and for the extra traction when the snows came. :-)
Don't know about their expenses, but on my last visit back to that region, people were still traveling very long distances for jobs. They will be the ones screaming.
Another solution I forgot, boarding. Back then, there were people coming from rural areas in neighboring states, rooming in boarding houses, and going back home, if they could afford it, on their days off. I imagine people are still doing that.