With Gas At $4-Plus, Some Catch The Bus And Others Miss The Point Entirely

by Nicole

With pump prices acting as strong a deterrent, Americans are putting the breaks on their driving habits. DOT Federal Highway Administration mileage figures released earlier this month show, "the sharpest yearly drop for any month in FHWA history."

Estimated vehicle miles on public roads in March 2008 fell 4.3% when compared to the same month last year, with Americans driving 11 billion fewer miles in total. It was the first time that March driving figure had declined since 1979.

With gas prices like daylight robbery, commuters are choosing to skip the pump and run –– to the nearest bus stop. The American Public Transportation Association reports that last year ridership reached levels not seen in 50 years, with 10.3 billion bus, trolley and train trips taken in 2007. Furthermore, they report that a staggering 35% of summer travelers say they are likely to use public transit to save on driving costs when visiting other cities.

All this is good news for the environment, but extremely bad news for car makers. New car sales dropped by 7 % in April; the seasonally adjusted sales total of 14.4 million vehicles was the worst in 13 years.

With car sales plummeting, car dealers are resorting to desperate measures to move vehicles. One Butler, MO dealer is offering a choice of $250 in gas or a free semi-automatic handgun with purchase. We're not sure why the handgun needs to be semi-automatic (how many people do Missouri drivers need to shoot in one go?), but so far it's by far the preferred option, with 80% of customers opting for a coupon which they can exchange for a gun once they've passed the require background check.

"It's a choice –– protection or gas," said Walter Moore of Max Motors. "We got high gas prices, theft, carjackings, innocent people getting hurt."

We could be wrong, but it seems like Walter’s customers aren’t the Prius-buying type. It's attitudes like these that make Walter's namesake Michael Moore so proud –– of Canadians. We're figuring Walter skipped Michael's anti-firearm flick Bowling for Columbine when it came out in theaters, but would like to think he might catch up with it on DVD since it notoriously features a bank which offered a similar bonus for new customers. Ultimately, the film showed that guns are about as bad for people as fossil fuels are for the planet. Again, we could be wrong, but we thought the end-game was to get rid of both.

| 05/27/08 | Environment