The downside? It costs families and businesses more money.

The upside? This:

"Soaring prices at the pump apparently are having such a dramatic impact in the U.S. that annual gas consumption is expected to drop for the first time in nearly two decades — meaning Americans not only are driving less, they're doing it more efficiently.

The Transportation Department reported Wednesday that Americans drove 1.8 percent fewer miles in April, compared with the same month last year, the sixth consecutive month driving miles figures have declined.

Those numbers represent a significant shift in consumer behavior, according to a report on driving habits and energy consumption by Cambridge Energy Research Associates. The report says Americans not only are changing their driving habits, they're shunning SUVs, pickup trucks and minivans, sending sales of those vehicles plunging more than 50 percent this year. Drivers instead are buying smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles, including hybrids.

"It's kind of stunning," the study's co-author, Aaron F. Brady, told the New York Times. "It's like falling off a cliff."

Take Chicopee John's thread from yesterday, with everyone's individual stories about how they've changed their behavior in response to high gas prices, and multiply a few million times.

There's your market at work.

So much for Steve's notion that we wouldn't change our behavior. One of the morning news shows brought up auto manufacturer's concerns with what to do with massive SUVs that are already built... because sales are plummeting. They may get stuck with inventory.

Man, if I'm a real estate developer, I'm all about city living, lofts and such. That business is going to boom.

At the same time, "ex-burbs" like mine well north of L.A. will suffer. Suburban sprawl will retract. Home sales stats already back it up in L.A., front page news.

The migration will reverse.

I haven't changed my driving habits. F----k it. I drive how I drive. I pay more, so be it. I enjoy high performance cars. I enjoy driving, and driving fast. I enjoy taking my car to the track. I don't want to live in a world where everyone drives an electric sewing machine, and kisses their same sex spouse on the cheek while kissing their kid (who was conceived at the local sperm bank), and bicycle to my job at the Recycle headquarters.

quote:

The migration will reverse.

That's already happening. I'll try to find the study, but it showed how real estate values in places further away from city centers are falling a lot more than the places with shorter commutes.

quote:

Originally posted by shepwrite:
So much for Steve's notion that we wouldn't change our behavior. One of the morning news shows brought up auto manufacturer's concerns with what to do with massive SUVs that are already built... because sales are plummeting. They may get stuck with inventory.

Man, if I'm a real estate developer, I'm all about city living, lofts and such. That business is going to boom.

At the same time, "ex-burbs" like mine well north of L.A. will suffer. Suburban sprawl will retract. Home sales stats already back it up in L.A., front page news.

The migration will reverse.

Maybe in LA but who care about California. Actually I am serious, talk about one of the places that drove up the market, spent all there was and are now defaulting.

As for changing our habits, wake up, same thing happened in the 80s how long did it last. We went from small Japanese cars to SUVs in a heart beat. Gas hurts now but everything else will catch up.