What is news, however, is that Americans are driving less than they were when gas prices were high.  The Business Courier reported today that the U.S. Department of Transportation found Americans drove 100 billion fewer miles between November 2007 and October 2008, even after gas prices began to fall.

100 billion fewer miles.  That’s a lot of not driving, although it may shed even more light on the declining gas prices.  As oil prices by the barrel continue to drop, we have to consider the fact that less people driving means less demand, which always leads to lower prices.

Some of this has to do with a change in behavior for American drivers.  Perhaps they’re going Green and just don’t want to burn more fuel, maybe they’re unemployed, maybe they’re exercising more, or perhaps it simply is a fact that Americans don’t drive as much as they used to.

Whatever the reason, the result is clear: fuel prices dropping to below $1.50 in many parts of the country.  Which also means less fuel tax income for state highway departments, which means less money to fix roads and infrastructure.  So you may be paying for that cheap tank of gas next year when your state has to raise taxes to fix all the potholes.

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CBS News reports: Nationally, the AAA says 41 million Americans were expected to travel more than 50 miles for the holiday, down about 1.5 percent, or 600,000 people, from Thanksgiving last year. Of those, about 4.5 million are expected to fly, down about 7 percent from last year, while around 33.2 million will drive, a decrease of about 1 percent.

It is the first decrease in holiday travel nationally since 2002, and the largest since the Thanksgiving that followed the terror attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

The real bad news is a 7% drop isn’t really enough to notice when you’re actually on the road, especially if you’re stuck in traffic this year.  That’s about a half a car every 5 not on the road from last year; and if you’re stuck in between 5 cars going 10 mph are you going to notice that half a car missing?  I guess it will be worth it, since you’ll know you’re spending about $1 less per gallon on gas than you were last year!

Happy Thanksgiving!

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