...“Our preferences have changed over the years, and we are much more willing to continue our driving habits in the face of price increases,” said Knittel, who is studying driver response to gas price increases. “Unlike the 1970s when people did drive less, data show people now are not taking the extra step to conserve.”
Yet drivers may not be as blase about pump prices as the data indicate, said some industry observers.
“Sometimes when the price of something goes up, demand does not go down because it can't go down,” said Charles Langley, who oversees gasoline monitoring for UCAN. “If the price of strawberries goes up, you don't have to buy strawberries, but you can't get to work on a tank of strawberries. No matter what, you need the gas.”
In places like San Diego County, where commuters are increasingly driving longer distances to work – in some cases because rising home prices have pushed workers as far out as Temecula to find an affordable place to live – the demand for gas is a necessity, not an indulgence.
San Diego Union-Tribune
