Five Reasons to Love $4 Gas
- From: rpautrey2 <rpautrey2@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2008 11:25:00 -0700 (PDT)
Five Reasons to Love $4 Gas
By , Foreign Policy
Posted on July 16, 2008
Printed on July 16, 2008
http://www.alternet.org/story/91628/
1. The mass transit boom
What's happening: From 2000 to 2005, fewer than 5 percent of Americans
used mass transit for their commutes, compared with about 50 percent
in Japan and Europe. But that may be changing. More U.S. commuters
than ever are taking buses, subways, or light rail to work instead of
driving their cars. Americans took nearly 85 million more trips in the
first three months of 2008 than they did in the same period in 2007, a
recent American Public Transportation Association study found.
Ridership in 2007 was the highest in 50 years.
Why it's happening: It's not rocket science. For many, a roundtrip bus
or metro fare is easier to stomach than gas prices that in some places
have climbed to $4.79 per gallon. Three quarters of Americans now
believe more money should be spent on developing and improving mass
transit systems, and cities are responding. Expansion and renovation
projects are in the works for southern California, New York,
Philadelphia, Seattle, and Washington, DC. Europe, meanwhile, is
taking transit to the next level: Paris, which has been updating its
light rail network, is installing energy-efficient trains on several
Métro lines, while London plans to increase its system's overall
capacity by 50 percent by 2022.
2. Lower obesity rates
What's happening: Rising gas prices and smaller belt sizes go
together, according to Charles Courtemanche of Washington University
in St. Louis. His research found that, for every dollar increase in
the average real price of gas, overweight and obesity levels in the
United States would decline by 16 percent after seven years. His study
also attributes the outward expansion of American waistlines between
1979 and 2004 in part to falling prices. Similar research published in
the European Journal of Public Health found that European countries
with higher gasoline prices tend to have lower rates of obesity.
Why it's happening: One word: exercise. Bike shops across the United
States are reporting record sales, and Britain is even promoting a
national "Bike Week" to encourage commuters to ride, not drive, to the
office. Not only is two-wheeling a cheaper way to travel, it's also
healthier. Courtemanche's results show that "the average person walks
or bicycles an average of 0.5 times more per week if the price of gas
rises by $1." Another factor he identifies is that cost-conscious
Americans are choosing to eat at restaurants less frequently. Indeed,
a virtuous cycle could be at work: A study published in The
Engineering Economist found that Americans today use nearly a billion
additional gallons of gasoline each year, compared with 1960, solely
because they weigh more.
3. Fewer accidents
What's happening: This past Memorial Day, normally a time when
American drivers swarm the country's interstates and police expect
large numbers of accidents, many states reported that traffic deaths
were the lowest in years. For instance, North Carolina saw just five
traffic fatalities over Memorial Day weekend, down from 19 in 2007.
Ohio experienced its lowest number of accidents in 38 years, and other
states reported similar declines.
Why it's happening: Americans are driving at historic lows, according
to a May U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) report, and less
driving means fewer accidents. And they may be driving slower and more
cautiously, too. Ian Parry, a senior fellow at Resources for the
Future, an energy think tank, says that while the effect would be
modest, some people "will realize they can drive less aggressively"
and conserve gas mileage. According to fueleconomy.gov, a U.S.
government Web site, "each 5 mph you drive over 60 mph is like paying
an additional $0.20 per gallon."
4. Shorter commutes
What's happening: Worry about rising gas prices has encouraged workers
to move closer to their jobs to cut costs and find alternate ways of
traveling to work. And for many of those that still drive, less-packed
roads are actually producing shorter commutes. While the change is by
no means uniform, in some of the most congested areas of southern
California, the average commute time has reportedly fallen by 5 or 6
minutes. That could make for a sunnier Los Angeles: a 2006 paper in
Science found that people with shorter commute times tend to be
happier.
Why it's happening: Confirming the predictions of experts such as
Harvard economist Gregory Mankiw, the DOT estimates that since
November 2006, cumulative vehicle miles traveled have dropped by 17.3
billion miles. And with fewer cars on the road, as Mankiw forecast in
2006, those still able to afford driving are finding more lanes clear.
In Europe, however, the effect has so far been the opposite, as
striking truck drivers in Britain, Spain, and France have slowed or
shut down entire highways to protest diesel prices.
5. The alternative fuels craze
What's happening: More of the world's fuel is coming from renewable
energy sources instead of Middle East oil drums. Global production of
biofuels -- generally ethanol derived from corn, but also plant oils
that produce biodiesel -- roughly tripled from 2000 to 2007. Critics
of biofuels point to studies indicating that the increasing diversion
of cereal crops for biofuel production is driving up food prices
around the world. Supporters counter that the answer isn't to give up
on alternatives to gasoline, but to develop "next-generation" biofuels
(think: switchgrass and algae) that don't interfere with the food
supply. And without biofuels, "the [oil] prices today that we are
experiencing could be much higher," says Fatih Birol of the
International Energy Agency.
Why it's happening: Everyone responds to incentives. The U.S. Congress
has set a national goal of 36 billion gallons of biofuel production by
2022, and generous subsidies are accordingly in place to make that
happen. In Europe, public policy has also led the way. The European
Union wants biofuels to constitute 10 percent of the fuel mix by 2020,
a target that has come under scrutiny as food prices have risen
sharply in recent months.
Reproduced with permission from Foreign Policy www.foreignpolicy.com.
Copyright 2008, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
© 2008 Foreign Policy All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/91628/
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