Driving is the road less taken in last year; Americans cut back on miles, even after gas prices fell; change in habits also means less in taxes.

Driving is the road less taken in last year; Americans cut back on miles, even after gas prices fell; change in habits also means less in taxes.
By: Ariel Hart; The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

It may not feel like it, but the American road is a lot more open these days.

In a year of historic changes in how we live, the federal government today is
expected to announce yet another blockbuster. From November 2007 to October
2008, the U.S. saw the biggest sustained decline in miles driven in recorded
history, according to the Federal Highway Administration.

Never before have Americans put the brakes on automotive travel in such a
decisive way. Month after month, for an entire year, drivers put fewer miles on
the road than they had the year before. It was an unprecedented stretch of
highway-driving decline, according to FHWA spokesman Doug Hecox. The agency has
been keeping records since 1942.

Vehicles on U.S. roads clocked 100.6 billion fewer miles in the year ending
in October than they had traveled the year before, according to a monthly
federal report expected today.

Georgians were among those helping drive the trend. Every month, they drove
less than they did in that month the previous year. In August --- traditionally
a big month for vacations --- Georgians chose to stay off the road by the
biggest margin of the year.

October, along with March and June, showed the second-biggest Georgia
decline.

Gas prices in October had fallen more than a $1 from their peak of more than
$4 in July, said Gregg Laskoski, a spokesman for AAA.

That made October's on-the-road dip especially significant, said FHWA
Administrator Thomas Madison.

"What this dramatic decline indicates is, it wasn't just an elastic reaction
to gasoline prices," Madison said. "People are fundamentally changing their
travel habits."

The economy is probably one of the main culprits, he said. Because the
federal gas tax is charged as cents-per-gallon and doesn't rise with inflation,
the driving deficit cost billions of dollars for federal highway and
mass-transit funding, Madison also noted.

In a statement, U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters said "banking on
the gas tax is no longer a sustainable option."

In contrast, buses, trains and HOV registries are packed.

The Clean Air Campaign, an Atlanta-based organization that rewards green
commutes, logged nearly triple the number of applications in 2008 over the year
before for a cash-rewards program.

A spokeswoman for MARTA, which started out with a much larger passenger base
than other Atlanta transit agencies, said ridership rose 5 percent in October
2008 over October 2007.

The national drop-off in driving was bigger in rural areas than urban, maybe
because more people in urban areas were already taking mass transit, Madison
said.

State Department of Transportation Commissioner Gena Evans is one of those
people who cut down on driving.

After she and her new husband, former state Transportation Board Chairman
Mike Evans, saw the rising cost to fill up his Hummer, she started riding mass
transit to work in downtown Atlanta much of the time.

"I'll tell you, the Hummer gets 12 miles per gallon," she said. "It was a
real reality check when we were filling up and it was $100 for a fill-up, at
least, sometimes more than that."

Total Miles American Vehicles Drove

* Year ending Oct. 2008: 2.907 trillion miles

* Year ending Oct. 2007: 3.008 trillion miles

Source: FHWA

Average U.S. Price per Gallon of Unleaded

* Nov. 2007: $3.07

* July 17, 2008: $4.11 (peak)

* Oct. 2008: $3.09