EnviroHumanImpact

From the New York Times on May 31, 2008, by Floyd Norris, the story begins that Americans are driving less. Whoo Hoo!

In normal times, the number of miles driven in the United States rises each year, as more people drive more cars and as rising housing costs force some commuters to move farther and farther from their jobs.

But the Federal Highway Administration estimates that in March — the most recent month for which data is available — vehicles traveled 246 billion miles. That is a lot of driving, but the figure is down 4.3 percent from the previous March.

Monthly comparisons can be volatile, since changing holidays and weather can have substantial impacts that have nothing to do with decisions to drive less or more. But the trend seems to have begun last winter. In the 12 months through March, the total miles driven — 2.99 trillion — were nearly 1 percent below the figure for the 12 months before.

Again, this is good news. At least slightly. Granted, it does not fix anything, and if the amount of driving is fixed to gas prices, gas will have to get much more costly (oh, and it just might!) before we see people reducing their driving significantly in droves.

So there is a small silver lining in the higher price of gas (if you look for it). What else does it mean? Hopefully it spurs development of alternative fuels and much more fuel efficient cars. Much of the technology is here, we just need the economic reason sometimes for people to literally be throwing money away unless they pay to the more efficient, less polluting upgraded travel.

Of course, there often is an alternative in simpler means of travel, like walking, biking, and public transit!

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