Sign of the Times in The Times

Wall of masks in the hallway outside my office.

HIGH GAS PRICES SPUR CHANGES IN DRIVER BEHAVIOR

Weird weather couldn't make drivers cut down on their gas consumption. Nor could stern lectures or hand-wringing or despairing newspaper editorials. And unbelievably, only weeks ago, the New York State Assembly turned its back on $354 million in mass transit (congestion pricing pilot program) funding because it couldn't face the hard work of legislative negotiation and compromise required to secure the funding from the Feds.

But all that seems to have changed, and overnight. In front page stories dated May 10, both the New York Times and the Staten Island Advance reported that drivers they'd interviewed said high prices--low, $3.81; high $3.93 on Staten Island--were forcing them to change their driving patterns and behavior, including the choice of nearby vacation destinations over those farther away.

Some said they were doing more walking. Some described buying just enough gas to get them over the bridge to New Jersey, where prices at the pump are lower. Others reported they now thought twice about making even relatively short local trips because of the need to conserve fuel. And some were even taking the bus.

The problem is that these changes in behavior are driven by market forces, not policy or legislation. So that if oil prices were suddenly to moderate their seemingly inexorable rise or even decline, there's little reason to believe that drivers wouldn't revert to their old profligate ways.

I was pleased to see that, after Hillary Clinton jumped on John McCain's gas tax holiday bandwagon, Barack Obama rightly called the proposal a gimmick and a distraction from the need to craft an energy policy that works.

Comments

[Michael Ejercito]

Market forces are not the problem; they are the solution .

Individuals might not know what is best for themselves; a central planner would know even less.

[Dan Icolari]

Thank you for your comment, Michael--a comment with which I strongly disagree.

The solution to the multi-pronged energy problem will not be developed around what the individual determines to be in his/her own interest, but rather which policies, determined in broad terms globally and determined/implemented in more narrow terms locally, is best for the greatest number.

We have already seen, in spades, the results of the laissez-faire approach.

[Ace]

Note how quickly the state of NY will suspend the gasoline tax, in sharp contrast to the
death-by-neglect of congestion pricing.

[Ace]

"people don't do what they believe in, they just do what's most convenient, then they repent"

[Dan Icolari]

Hey, Ace,

Actually, your quote (source? are you the wit?) is the far better refutation of poster Ejercito's comment. Thank you for it.

[Ace]

From Bob Dylan's - Brownsville Girl. I just assumed everyone knows his album Knocked Out Loaded by heart so didn't provide the source.

[Ace]

"Some babies never learn"-from the same song.

I noticed the other night that a car company was touting 20mpg city and 30mpg highway as a selling point during a television commercial. For those of us who remember the 1970s didn't you think cars would be averaging 100mpg by now?

[Dan Icolari]

Hi, Ace,

Yeah--I saw an ad the other night for a new, pared-down SUV that was touting mileage of 24 highway. It's pitiful, really.

But consciousness is changing, albeit slowly, as witness the fact that tomorrow I'm going to a conference sponsored by various local groups (including the Chamber of Commerce) touting St. George as a walkable neighborhood. Unthinkable even five years ago.

I'm compiling a list of favorite walks to profile (with photos and directions) that will be posted here on WALKING IS TRANSPORTATION.

I hope you'll find one or more of them worth planning a trip for.

Enjoy your summer, Ace.

[Ace]

Thanks Dan, best of luck tomorrow.

I had a wonderful tramp through the Jamaica Bay National Recreation Area on Memorial Day including a stop off at Floyd Bennett Field.