Gas Prices & Behavior

I heard an interesting radio interview yesterday on NPR. Someone from Consumer Reports was on and their new issue has a study they did about the benefits of switching to a more fuel-efficient car. Turns out that economically, your cost per mile driven is often significantly lower if you keep the car you have rather than prematurely trading it in for a more fuel-efficient vehicle, even with gas around $4 a gallon. There are of course a fair number of qualifiers and it depends on your individual situation. This result was fairly counter-intuitive, and I don't think it matches up with a lot of folks' perceptions. I think we automatically assume that a more fuel-efficient car will be cheaper (and it is, over the long-run).

Anyway, the whole thing got me wondering about if we've finally reached the point where we can begin to make national energy policy decisions and individual consumption decisions based on something other than cheap oil.

On the one hand, expensive gasoline is definitely a hardship for many people, putting a pinch in the family budget (along with the more expensive food prices). But, people are ingenious and they begin to find ways to cope--carpooling, mass transit, biking to work, reducing trips, etc.--that are actually more planet-friendly choices. And when it is time to get a new car, people are definitely opting for smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles.

Here's Memorial Day, with the official kick-off to the summer driving season, and I'm wondering if high gas prices are affecting your summer plans? We have a long road trip planned, and I've had to be somewhat more careful about lodging and other expenses to compensate. But so far, that's about the extent of it.

What's the price point where you will see a seismic shift in behavior? I'm thinking it's $5 a gallon. I wonder when we'll get there.

Did you know?

That if you're making strawberry quick bread and you realize after it's already been in the oven for five minutes that you've left out the egg (because you see it still sitting on the counter), it'll be okay. Apparently you can pull the bread out of the oven, stir in the egg, put it back in and have it turn out fine. I was surprised too.