Off the sauce - Gas prices plunge but driving habits stay curbed
Most Americans who adjusted their driving habits in a big way when gasoline prices surged are sticking with their economizing ways, according to a Gallup poll released Tuesday.
Even though prices at the pump are now about 45% lower than they were a year ago and significantly below $2 a gallon, 52% of Americans told Gallup that they have not gone back to their old gas-guzzling ways.
At the same time, overall demand for gasoline continued to decline, according to MasterCard SpendingPulse. Demand during the usually volatile Christmas week dropped 2.9% from the prior week while year-to-date consumption was off 3.2%. Winter storms throughout the country also hurt demand.
For a nation long vilified for consuming mass quantities of oil, this downshift in vehicle use would be historic. The change, though, may be as much a result of the glum economy that has forced consumer cutbacks in a number of areas, including ritual holiday shopping, as it is a long-term behavioral shift.
“It’s like the, ‘It’s the economy, stupid,’ of what’s going on at this point more than anything else,” said Brian Bethune, chief U.S. financial economist for IHS Global Insight.
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