Gasaholic Behavior

By Jeffrey Tomich and Elisa Crouch, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Jun. 8–Consider Vicky Curry a foot soldier in the battle against runaway oil prices.

The St. Peters resident is among the legions of Americans who have responded to the soaring price of gasoline by buying less of it, by bicycle commuting, riding mass transit or replacing gas guzzlers with fuel-efficient cars or scooters. Some people are moving closer to work.

Curry, 59, decided to start carpooling. She’s sharing rides with a friend to her job in Moscow Mills, a 35-mile trek. She’s also considering trading her 1989 Chevrolet Beretta for a smaller car — another step toward reducing her $90-a-week gasoline bill.

“My budget cannot withstand that,” she said. “Whatever it takes, I’ll do.”

By itself, her decision barely registers against the nation’s 21-million-barrel-a-day oil habit. But the evidence is piling up to show such actions are making a dent.

The Energy Information Administration estimates gasoline demand will fall 0.3 percent this year — the first such decline since 1991. While the drop seems tiny, it represents thousands of barrels of oil a day. Typically, gasoline demand increases just more than 1 percent a year.

There’s other evidence, too.

Last month, the Federal Highway Administration reported that Americans drove 11 billion miles less in March than they did the same month in 2007 — the biggest year-over-year decline since the agency began keeping the records in 1942.

Bus and train ridership is up 3.3 percent in the first quarter, according to the American Transport Association. And, Tuesday, it was reported that Honda’s Accord and Toyota’s Camry outsold Ford’s F-Series pickup for the first time since 1992.

To be sure, Americans didn’t just respond to higher pump prices. The growth in fuel demand has been slowing and even dipped on price spikes that came after hurricanes Katrina and Rita during the summer of 2005.

For many, however, changes take time. People still have to get to work, take their kids to school and go to the grocery store. Longer term, it’s easier to make changes, especially if they believe fuel prices aren’t going down.

“It might be that now, after several years of higher prices and steadily rising prices that people think this is going to continue,” said Laurie Falter, an analyst for the EIA, the U.S. Energy Department’s record-keeping arm.

Count Marv Sherman of St. Charles among those who are convinced.

Sherman, 56, recently replaced his 1994 Toyota Camry with a new higher-mileage Toyota Yaris.

On a recent cross-country trip with his wife and daughter to visit colleges, the family’s new car averaged 42 miles per gallon on several fill-ups and never below 35 miles a gallon. He estimates the family saved hundreds of dollars on the trip compared with what it would have spent taking the other car, a Honda Odyssey van.

The average price of regular gasoline in the St. Louis area is almost $1 a gallon higher than it was a year ago. That’s mostly because of crude oil prices, which have doubled to more than $130 a barrel.

Friday, the average price in the city of St. Louis and surrounding Missouri suburbs was $3.84 a gallon, according to AAA’s Fuel Gauge report. Prices for higher grade gas and diesel already were above $4 a gallon. Gasoline also is above $4-a-gallon at stations across the Metro East, where fuel taxes are higher.

The effects of soaring gasoline prices are amplified by higher food prices, declining house values and a weak stock market — all of which mean consumers have less money to spend on fuel (or feel like they do).

While fuel-saving changes are helping family budgets, there’s less evidence they’re making a difference elsewhere. The U.S. accounts for about one-fourth of the world’s oil demand. Until recently, it hasn’t seemed to matter. But for a time in recent days, it appeared to be a bigger factor for investors who have been pouring money into commodity funds.

Crude oil prices reached $135 a barrel leading up to Memorial Day weekend, but then fell for a brief period last week and see-sawed back and forth after. The Energy Department showed a bigger-than-expected drop in demand and an increase in gasoline inventories.

“That kind of anecdotal evidence is part of the reason why the (oil) market (took) a pause,” said Eric Wittenauer, an energy analyst at Wachovia Securities in St. Louis. “It weighs on the investor’s psyche, which since August has been buy, buy, buy.”

But any joy appears to be short-lived. Long-term supply-demand fundamentals still support higher prices.

In fact, oil settled at $138.54 Friday after hitting a peak of $139.12.

Some reports suggest this may be just the start of a new era in oil prices as international oil companies struggle to find supplies to meet demand.

Regardless of where oil and gasoline prices head, some St. Louisans are finding that becoming less dependent on their cars has other, less tangible benefits.

Computer engineer Dave Lloyd, 33, who lives in the Shaw neighborhood, got rid of his BMW station wagon and began bicycling to his job in Webster Groves last April.

Since then, he estimates he’s pedaled about 4,000 miles and saved a couple of hundred dollars on gasoline.

The lifestyle change hasn’t just achieved its intended results of cutting fuel costs and getting in better shape. It also has improved Lloyd’s mood.

“I didn’t realize how cranky I was getting in my car,” he said. “Even when it’s raining or snowing, I’d rather be on my bike.”

jtomich@post-dispatch.com — 314-340-8320

ecrouch@post-dispatch.com — 314-340-8119

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