DOT: Driving sees sharpest drop on record

BALTIMORE (Map, News) - Soaring gas prices have curbed Americans’ driving habits, according to March driving data released by the federal Department of Transportation that showed the largest year-over-year drop of any month on record.

And a fill-up isn’t getting any cheaper, as average gas prices hit a record high for the 20th consecutive  day Tuesday.

The Federal Highway Administration’s Traffic Volume Trends report, produced monthly since 1942, showed a 4.3 percent drop in estimated miles traveled in March. The drop is the largest monthly decline on record, and the first time since 1979 that travel during that month fell. The drop equates to 11 billion fewer miles traveled in March than a year before.

“I think there’s more of an active desire to cut trips or do everything with one trip to cover several things,” said Kathleen Schmatz, president and CEO of the Automotive Aftermarket Industry Association. The Bethesda-based group published a study on driving habits in November, with 90 percent of respondents saying they were driving less, 31 percent saying they were carpooling more, and 24 percent saying they were taking public transportation more often.

“Americans can’t control the cost of gasoline but they can control how much gasoline they use,” Schmatz said.

The average price of a gallon of regular gas nationally hit $3.937 on Tuesday. In the Baltimore metro area, regular gas reached an average of $3.901 Tuesday, up from $3.898 the day before.

Alaska and Connecticut continued to top all states for gas prices, averaging $4.20 and $4.19, respectively, for a gallon of regular.

“At four bucks a gallon people are doing the easy economizing,” said Byron King, a fuel and oil expert with Baltimore-based Agora Financial. “It’d be hard to say we’re seeing a mass migration back from suburbs to the city. You’re not seeing people quitting jobs to work closer to home. Although, over time, that may start happening.”

Federal authorities, in releasing the March travel data, expressed concern about the effect a decrease in driving would have on a federal fund that collects the tax charged on every gallon of gas.

The federal gas tax of 18.4 cents per gallon and 24.4 cents for diesel goes into the Highway Trust Fund and is used for the maintenance and expansion of the nation’s highway system.

“That Americans are driving less underscores the challenges facing the Highway Trust Fund and its reliance on the federal gasoline excise tax,” acting Federal Highway Administration Administrator Jim Ray said in a statement.

acahall@baltimoreexaminer.com