Are American motorists finally changing their gas-guzzling ways?
As prices have neared and in some cases topped $4 a gallon, drivers have cut their consumption of gasoline to its lowest levels in a decade, driving less and buying cars that are more fuel-efficient.
The adjustment has slowed the climb in gasoline prices, which until last week had risen for 10 consecutive weeks, and could preserve some money for Americans to spend on other items as the economy struggles to recover more convincingly.
"Over the last four weeks, motor gasoline product supplied has averaged 8.6 million barrels per day, down by 4.0 percent from the same period last year," the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said last week.
The response to $4 gasoline is reinforcing a trend toward lower fuel consumption. This will be the third year in the past five with historically high oil prices. Even before the latest price spike, gasoline consumption had dropped 6 percent from 2007 through 2011, the EIA said.
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The Federal Highway Administration adds that the number of vehicle miles driven over a 12-month period ending in January was lower than in any year since 2004.
These may be signs that consumers are adapting to $4 gasoline, and may explain why retail sales are advancing in the face of high pump prices.
"I think that there is a little bit of a new mind-set that has happened with our customer over the last five years," Charles Holley, Walmart's chief financial officer, said at a March retail conference. "Today, I think the customer has probably reset expectations and their budgets around that higher gas price."
