Has a tipping point been reached with gas prices?
Apparently gas prices have finally reached some sort of tipping point, as public transit ridership numbers are growing at the fastest rate in at least a decade. While public transit ridership has been slowly growing over the past several years (with a 2.1% growth last year), it is predicted that average growth will reach 5% or more this year, as high gas prices and a slower economy drive more commuters on to public buses and trains.
Denver, which recently began work on a major public railway expansion, has seen ridership numbers increase by 8% compared to last year. And for the first time since 1991, the federal Energy Department predicts that Americans will consume less gas this year than last.
Evidence is slightly mixed in Los Angeles, but appears to indicate that the roads are clearing a bit, while public transit use increases as well.
This is all good news for proponents of mass transit and confirmation that political opportunists who have advocated the lifting of federal gas taxes (while also espousing their pro-environment credentials) are completely off-base. Unfortunately for McCain and Clinton, even if all mainstream economists are uniformly wrong in their belief that any tax reduction will be met with an equivalent increase in prices by the gas companies, (and that their policies therefore would result in a lowering of gas prices), they would be releasing the recent pressure that has led to this increase in public transit ridership and decrease in road congestion.
If we have, in fact, reached some sort of tipping point with gas prices and transportation, then the policy proposals from our leaders should be “how can we take advantage of this shift in daily behavior,” instead of “how do we reverse it by trying to lower gas prices?” This is an opportunity and we, as a society, need to take it.
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