US drivers log 12bn fewer miles in June

McClatchy newspapers
guardian.co.uk,
Thursday August 14 2008 17:05 BST

To the six leather-clad Harley riders from Montreal who pulled off the interstate to eat lunch in Chicago on Wednesday, the open road seems even more open this year.
The dining area was more than half empty, and so were many of the highways on their 1,800-mile trek to and from a motorcycle rally in Sturgis, South Dakota, this year's destination on their annual visit to the US.
"There was much less traffic, much less congestion," said Nathalie Miousse, 36. "This was our first time to Sturgis, and they told us it was less crowded than in other years."
Higher prices for petrol and other necessities are forcing more Americans to downshift on their summer road trips, and everyone from filling station owners to restaurant servers is feeling the pinch.
Americans drove 12.2bn fewer miles in June compared to a year ago, the government said Wednesday, a reduction of 4.7 percent to 250.2bn, the lowest for June since 2002 and the biggest monthly drop this year.
Driving on rural interstates fell nearly 7 percent, which is "a pretty good indication that multi-state commercial traffic and regional vacation travel are down," said Doug Hecox, a spokesman for the Federal Highway Administration.
Highway officials expected metropolitan areas to show the biggest decline because people have mass transit as an option, but it came in rural areas instead.
"There may be broader economic reasons," Hecox said, including high food prices and a tough job market. "The effects of that may be digging deeper in rural areas," he said. "People in the middle of the country may just be staying home."
Rockford, Illinois-based Road Ranger USA, operator of 73 service stations in seven Midwestern states, most in rural towns and near interstates, has seen petrol sales fall 5 percent this year along interstates and urban areas and 15 percent in rural areas such as Freeport, Illinois, said Dan Arnold, the company's president.
"We're in the eye of the storm," Arnold said. "Summer travel is down a little bit, but in smaller communities it's down more significantly.
They have less disposable income, so higher fuel prices affect them disproportionately. It just comes down to having less money to spend, so you stay home"
Petrol prices aren't the only deterrent, Lisa Schweitzer, a transportation policy expert at the University of Southern California, said.
"Not only is it expensive to get anywhere, but you have to pay more for whatever you do when you get there," she said.
June was the eighth straight month of decline in driving, and 2008 is on pace to be the first year of decline since 1980. Americans also used 400 million fewer gallons of petrol in the first quarter, according to the highway administration.
Driving miles are expected to decline again when July numbers come out because that's when petrol prices peaked at more than $4 nationally. But highway officials expect motorists will get back behind the wheel eventually and the miles to start climbing again.
"That trend will resume. We just don't know when," said Hecox, but he predicted the trend of using less gas will continue because Americans will buy more efficient vehicles such as hybrids and electric vehicles.