Your SUV is only a small part of the US demand. Commercial use of fuel is a huge factor. Whether you burn 7 gallons today or 4 isn't a big factor.
And whether you burn 7 or 4 is nothing when you realize that the big price swings you see are driven by the Asian economy. Not the US economy.
Steel and concrete are going through the same thing, being driven upward by an active economy, most especially driven upward by an increased dynamism in the Asian economy. Again, the cement in your sidewalk is nothing, concrete is being driven up by other factors. A few pounds difference in the amount of metal in your car is nothing when China is on a building spree like never before in world history.
On a personal level, though, when it costs nearly a hundred dollars to fill your SUV, people make their own decisions to get a little PT Cruiser to ride around in when they don't need to drive the SUV, and they do it without anyone telling them to. If they don't, if you see a housewife riding around in her SUV by herself, then you have to imagine that she has decided its worth it to pay the hundred dollars to fill it because:
She doesn't have the money right now to buy another vehicle;
She needs a large vehicle to carry all the kids;
They occasionally haul stuff and can't afford to own several vehicles;
They have decided that the additional safety factor is worth it to them.
They keep making laws making it difficult to have a larger vehicle, and people keep coming up with ways around the laws because people want the option of having one if they want one. Outlaw them all together and people will buy school buses and outfit them in leather and stereo systems because if they believe they need one, no one is going to stop them.
I don't need one, and evidently you don't either. But if you need one bad enough to pay the $50 grand to buy it, and the hundred bucks to fill it, that is a decision you have to make. I'm not going to make it for you.