Drivers Are Switching to Car Pools
Drivers are increasingly hopping on mass transit, car-pooling and seeking out special deals to counter rising gasoline prices, which nationally crossed $2 for a gallon of regular for the first time this month and still are rising.
Though gasoline isn't at record highs after adjusting for inflation, the $2 mark is turning out to be an important threshold.
The agency that runs the four airports in the Los Angeles area, where gasoline prices are among the highest in the nation, has seen a 20% increase in employees who bike, car pool or take a van to work. "People can't afford to drive anymore," says Devon Deming, car-pool program manager for Los Angeles World Airports.
A focus group of suburban Seattle residents last week told the Washington State Department of Transportation that they had begun to car-pool and avoid unnecessary trips. And riders on the 72-mile commuter rail line from Miami to West Palm Beach, Fla., increased 5.5% in April from a year earlier.
It's easy to see the attraction. The national average for regular unleaded gasoline was $2.06 a gallon this week , up 55 cents in six months. Adjusting for inflation, gasoline hasn't been this expensive since the fall of 1985, long before the three-ton Hummer.
Today, consumers are spending about 2.8% of their disposable income on gasoline, and the amount may rise to 3% before the climb is done. But that is still well below the 5% spent in the early 1980s, when gasoline nearly hit $3 a gallon in inflation-adjusted terms. "This implies that current gasoline prices could rise significantly before affecting consumer spending habits," says Bruce Lanni, an energy analyst at A.G. Edwards who compiled the statistics.
Still, groups that encourage sharing rides have seen a spike in interest. Connie Dice, vice president of Rideshare Co., a Hartford, Conn., nonprofit that coordinates car pooling and van sharing, says that recent gasoline price increases haven't affected participation. But the number of calls to Rideshare's toll-free number has jumped 41% over the past six weeks compared with the year-earlier period.
One caller, Frankie Twining, started taking the van to her job as an Aetna customer-service representative earlier this month. "Instead of going over 500 miles a week, I'm only driving 150 miles. That's a huge saving on gas," she says.
The popularity of Boeing Co.'s alternative commute programs has increased as the price of gasoline surged in the Pacific Northwest, where the company has 52,000 employees. "In recent months there has been a distinct and sustained rise in participation," says spokesman Dean Tougas.
Some people are taking more unusual measures to avoid the gasoline pumps. Kenneth Senkel, a Dallas-area law student, and his wife decided to convert their 2002 Dodge Ram pickup to run on propane fuel. "We've just watched these prices go up and up and up," he says. "We were complaining about the high prices, and I got the idea in my head about just converting this thing." The conversion will cost more than $2,000, but his truck will travel the same distance on 76 cents of propane as it would on a gallon of gasoline.
Consumers are also on the hunt for the cheapest gasoline. Costco Wholesale Corp., known for its discount prices, said drivers pumped 20% more gasoline at it is stores in April than the year before. Filling her sport-utility vehicle Friday at the RaceTrac gasoline station in Grand Prairie, Texas, Ruth Scott, a U.S. Postal Service supervisor, says she had hoped to get to the Wal-Mart store five miles away, where gasoline is $1.86 a gallon, but settled for $1.89 because she was running on fumes. "I'm constantly thinking about how much gas I've got and how long I can make the tank last," she says. She says she is reducing trips to the store and combining other errands with her work commute to conserve.
Meanwhile, mass-transit agencies and environmental advocates are gearing up to use pricey gasoline in advertising campaigns. "It's a wonderful sales pitch," says Mindy Mize, who helps encourage use of alternative-fuel cars in North Texas.
But will it last? Many observers think such efforts will fade as soon as prices retreat. "It does swing up," says John Cox, president of the Partnership, a Southern California group promoting mass transit and environmentally friendly transportation technology. "But it also swings back."
汽油价格飙升迫使驾车者另寻出路
搭乘大众交通工具或者共乘一辆汽车等方式正在美国日渐流行。美国各地普通汽油本月首次突破每加仑2美元大关，且升势不改。人们不得不开始尝试各种办法，以免生活受到重大影响。
虽然经过通货膨胀因素调整后，汽油价格并未达到历史高点，但每加仑2美元也将是一个重要的分水岭。
洛杉矶世界机场(Los Angeles World Airports)是洛杉矶地区4家机场的管理机构。该机构“共乘汽车”项目的主管戴明(Devon Deming)说，骑自行车、共乘一辆汽车、或者搭乘客车上班的员工增加了20%。他说，人们已经开不起私家车了。洛杉矶地区的汽油价格在全美各地名列前茅。
西雅图市郊的一个居民团体上周告知华盛顿州交通局(Washington State Department of Transportation)，他们已经开始共乘汽车，取消不必要的出行。另外，从迈阿密至佛罗里达州西棕榈滩全长72英里的通勤车今年4月份的乘客人数较上年同期增加了5.5%。
这种趋势随处可见。本周普通无铅汽油的全国均价为每加仑2.06美元，比6个月前高出了55美分。就算经过通货膨胀因素的调整，这也是1985年秋季以来的最高点。
现如今，汽油开支占消费者可支配收入的约2.8%，在当前这轮升势停止之前，这个比例可能会升至3%，但仍低于八十年代初的5%。当时经通货膨胀因素调整后的汽油价格逼近了每加仑3美元。这几个数据是A.G. Edwards能源业分析师兰尼(Bruce Lanni)编制的，他说，这说明汽油价格还要更大幅度地上涨，才能改变消费者的消费习惯。
但是，那些鼓励大家共乘一辆汽车的团体还是发现人们对此兴趣盎然。负责协调共乘汽车的非盈利机构Rideshare Co.的副总裁黛丝(Connie Dice)说，最近汽油价格飙升尚未导致搭乘人数增加，但过去6周内拨打Rideshare免费热线的人数却较上年同期猛增41%。
Aetna客户服务代表特文宁(Frankie Twining)就打来电话，从本月开始搭乘客车上班。她说，“以前我每个礼拜都要驱车500多英里，现在只要150英里就够了，真是省油”。
西北部地区汽油价格飙升，使波音公司(Boeing Co.)选择性通勤项目变得更受欢迎了。波音公司在这个地区共有52,000名员工。公司发言人图格斯(Dean Tougas)说，这几个月选择通勤车的员工持续大量增加。
还有人另出奇招。达拉斯一位法律专业的学生肯尼斯?森克尔(Kenneth Senkel)和他的妻子决定，把他们的2002年款道奇(Dodge) Ram改装成丙烷动力车。他说，“汽油价格涨势不减，人们对此抱怨不休。我突然觉得需要改变一下。”改装这辆汽车耗资超过2,000美元，但现在只需76美分的丙烷，它就可以行使1加仑汽油的行程。
同时，消费者在四处寻找最便宜的汽油。以价格折让而著称的Costco Wholesale Corp.就表示，4月份到他们的汽油销量增加了20%。邮政总局(Postal Service)职员斯克特(Ruth Scott)上周五在RaceTrac加油站加油时说，她本来想到5英里外的沃尔玛(Wal-Mart)去加油，那儿每加仑汽油卖1.86美元，但实在没油了只好在这儿加，每加仑要1.89美元。她说，“我总是在算还有多少油，还能跑多远”这种问题。她说，为了节约开支，她减少了去商店的次数，上下班路上也顺带多办几件事儿。
此外，公共交通部门和环保人士也在大力提倡弃用昂贵的汽油，改用其他动力的汽车。
