NY Times: Go Ahead and Drive Less, if You Can

[Coastie for Truth]

FOR three straight weeks, Americans have been buying less gasoline than they did a year ago. Consumption is dropping at a rate not seen since drivers were waiting in gas lines back in the early 1980's. And people are turning to mass transit in record numbers in some cities.

"Normally we'd expect to see a decline of about 400,000 barrels a day from August to September just for seasonal reasons, as people stop taking vacations," said Doug MacIntyre, a senior oil market analyst for the Energy Information Administration.

But Americans consumed an average of 8.8 million barrels of gas a day for the week ending Sept. 16, down from 9.4 million the week before Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans and roughly 200,000 fewer barrels per day than in mid-September last year.

"That sort of gives an indication of the price impact," Mr. MacIntyre said. "It's a big decline."

There are any number of reasons - from hurricanes to Middle East instability to China's growing thirst for oil - to be pessimistic that the era of $1.50-a-gallon gasoline will ever return.



Much much more here

[whistle]

1. Sit at home, refuse to drive anywhere beyond five miles from home

...unless absolutely necessary, then plan it so other things can be done such as shopping, banking, errands, appointments, etc. I've been doing this now for the past 14 months and have cut my driving miles in half. I work from my home as much as possible and car pool when that is an option.

[getmeouttahere]

2. Bravo, Whistle...

We all need to find ways, big and small, to cut back. Sounds like you don't have access to mass transit, so it's even more difficult for you, which make your efforts all the more impressive.

[Coastie for Truth]

6. I cut my driving miles by 75%

when I took early retirement, and went back to work as a "tele-commuter" - the condo is in a "transit village."

We do combine trips.

[PaulaFarrell]

10. That's only 2-3% less than usual

If it was 20-30 I'd be impressed. Seems like most people are doing business as usual.

[NNadir]

3. This is good stuff.

Given the threat of global climate change, this punch in the gut has a silver lining: Reduced consumption.

While it was politically unpalatable, a gasoline tax that increased gasoline to these levels several years ago, taking the revenue and investing it in energy infrastructure, would have accomplished very much the same thing.

Now it's all going to windfall profits instead.

[kestrel91316]

4. The trick is to learn to be happy where you already are, to make

where you are and where you live into a better place, rather than trying to drive to someplace theoretically better.

I have become much more of a stay-at-home over the last 10-15 years. No longer do I feel the need to drive all the way down to Newport Beach on a Sunday (beaches bore me anyway), or "over the hill" into Beverly Hills (to window shop for things I can't afford), or just "around" because I feel like getting in the car and driving. I enjoy my home and hobbies, the yard is nice to be out in, and my neighbors are friends who I enjoy time with. The grocery store is a short 2 block walk away, as is the drug store. My workplace is only 3 miles away, by car or bus or bike or on foot (depending on weather).

I have deliberately arranged my life so that my transportation needs are few. I also wouldn't live in a plastic ticky-tacky same-same suburban development if my life depended on it. I live in a REAL neighborhood.

[getmeouttahere]

5. That's what I'm talkin' about, Kestrel!

Someone stated it very well on another thread...
We must start living more humbly

[unschooler]

7. Employers need to get a clue about telecommuting.

The only reason so many people are on the road it employer intransigence about "distributed" work, even in the "information worker" sector.

[kestrel91316]

8. Some of us will NEVER be able to telecommute, but then again some

of us will never see our jobs outsourced to India.

Like us CAT VETERINARIANS in private practice, lol.

[unschooler]

11. I'll remember that. ALL of my kids want to be veterinarians!

At the moment, anyway.

[Coastie for Truth]

9. Once they see it as a way of reducing overhead

(rent, real estate taxes, janitorial, utilities) without a simultaneous decrease in productivity, they jump on the band wagon.

Consider the effect of:

collaboration software, web conferencing, Outlook, fax, e-mail, etc.

versus

air fares, hotels, rent-a-cars, and "lost time" traveling

-->a "three day business trip" for a "two hour meeting" is history.

[unschooler]

12. I'm AMAZED how many employers don't see this obvious

advantage.

[Dogmudgeon]

13. Why the managerial class doesn't accept work from home

A large enough proportion of managers have massive ego investment in being able to control the behavior of their subordinates. They like them to be around so they have someone to "discipline".

Work from home is a proven, profitable, productive system that also results in far happier and conscientious employees. But with so many middle-level managers who would feel left out, powerless, and who would have to supervise work quality rather than worker behavior, "telecommuting" isn't going to have a chance until the Big Bosses are persuaded to change.

Fortunately, this current energy crisis might just be that chance.

--p!