Vehicle miles traveled (VMT) in the U.S. have decreased for the 6th straight month. The number of highway miles driven from November 2007 to April 2008 in the U.S. fell 1.7 percent from the previous year. Public transit ridership continues to increase as a total of 30 billion fewer miles were driven between November and April. Cambridge Energy Research Associates say the gasoline price shock has finally caught up with consumers. This is the "steepest decline" in U.S. driving mileage since the 1979-1980 Iranian Revolution that caused the oil shock resulting in a significant drop in mileage over those two years, said the Department of Transportation's spokesman Doug Hecox. In April of this year alone Americans drove 1.4 billion fewer highway miles than they did in April 2007. [Source: Reuters]
30 Billion Miles
Vehicle miles traveled (VMT) in the U.S. have decreased for the 6th straight month. The number of highway miles driven from November 2007 to April 2008 in the U.S. fell 1.7 percent from the previous year. Public transit ridership continues to increase as a total of 30 billion fewer miles were driven between November and April. Cambridge Energy Research Associates say the gasoline price shock has finally caught up with consumers. This is the "steepest decline" in U.S. driving mileage since the 1979-1980 Iranian Revolution that caused the oil shock resulting in a significant drop in mileage over those two years, said the Department of Transportation's spokesman Doug Hecox. In April of this year alone Americans drove 1.4 billion fewer highway miles than they did in April 2007. [Source: Reuters]
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This is GREAT news - and yet also disheartening, as the rate of decrease is vastly out of proportion to the increase in gas prices.
More evidence that if we want to solve the problem, we're going to have to move away from a reliance on market signals. And perhaps a sense of community responsibility??
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