Adjust To High Gas Prices Instead Of Waiting For Them To Drop

When gas pushed past $3 a gallon, we all raised our eyebrows, sweated a little bit but went about our business. When it crossed $3.50 a gallon, we cursed the oil companies, blamed the Iraq War and waited for prices to drop.

Now, at $4 a gallon and above, conserving gas has become serious business for most Americans. Adjusting to high gas prices is no longer an inconvenience; it's a reality that motorists now realize may never change, only get worse. Americans, it appears, are no longer waiting for gas prices to drop.

This is well exemplified in some research studies, the Associated Press reports.

Access America, a travel insurance company, found that when gas prices hit $3 per gallon, only 34 percent of people said they had changed the way they commuted.

But the company's national survey showed that gas at $4 meant 74 percent had changed their driving habits. At $5, it would be 85 percent.

NPD Group, a market research company, surveyed 43,000 drivers and asked what they already had done in response to higher gas prices. For the first time in two decades, the surveyors saw people making changes that could have a lasting impact on the way they live and shop, the report adds.

Motorists with long commuter miles are actually trading in their gas guzzlers or moving closer to where they work; people are dropping or scaling back vacation plans; some are even trading in cars for scooters and bikes, and more are working from home.

As people think and live differently, they need to push their governments and their employers to think in that framework of reality.

They need to push for public transportation and safer downtowns where people can make their homes instead of running away to their suburban houses after work only to return the next morning.

Tax credits for buying hybrid cars need to be made more attractive, and more buyers need to be made eligible for such tax credits. Employers need to aggressively consider telecommuting, perhaps certain days a week.

Higher gas prices are chipping away the American lifestyle. Whether they will change it completely we'll know in about 20 years. But the more we learn to sensibly adapt to high gas prices now, the better is our chance to survive the price onslaught in the long run.