Daily Score Blog

Plenty of national news stories have noted the recent nose-dive in driving all across the United States.  Federal figures show that over the past year -- as gas prices spiked and the economy slumped -- total vehicle travel fell more 3 percent, a remarkable decline.

But it's a bit more surprising, perhaps, to find that there's been a decline in per-capita vehicle travel in the Northwest states -- Oregon, Idaho, and Washington -- that's has been underway for nearly a decade. 

Take a look at the chart to the right.  It shows vehicle travel from the Federal Highway Statistics reports, adjusted for population, from 1994 through 2007.  And as you can see, per-person vehicle travel has been on the decline since 1999, back when gas prices were at historic lows. When 2008 data are released, I expect that we'll see even steeper declines.

To me, the interesting thing is that the falloff in per-person vehicle travel has been slow and steady:  nothing big in any one year, and not enough to make headlines, but enough over time to make a difference in our per-person travel.  In fact, the per-capita declines over the past few years have nearly offset population growth:  total vehicle travel in the Northwest states was only a wee bit more in 2007 than it was in 2003.

The Onion has an insightful discussion about the deep-bore tunnel:

From Brookings comes a policy proposal that steals my heart: the melodically-named Cash For Clunkers. Here's the low-down:

The incoming administration needs to act quickly to stimulate our ailing economy, prevent the collapse of the auto industry and tackle climate change and oil dependence. One policy idea might simultaneously rev up the engine on all three challenges—cash for clunkers.

Offering cash vouchers to clunker owners in exchange for their old, polluting cars is an idea that should be getting more attention. Drivers could use the vouchers toward the purchase of newer, more fuel-efficient vehicles, with the old vehicles scrapped to get them off the road.

If that sounds like a peculiar idea to lionize, consider the potential benefits. Older cars tend to be dirtier and less efficient, so getting them off the road can reduce gasoline consumption and carbon emissions as well as improve local air quality. (Or you could imagine tweaking the program to focus only on older cars that are serious gas guzzlers.) If the vouchers were good only for relatively efficient new vehicles, we would essentially guarantee fleet improvements. Plus, clunkers also tend to be less safe, so there could be an important public health benefit as well.

The idea really isn't too odd. In fact, in energy efficiency circles this sort of thing is actually rather pedestrian. (Sorry.) Leading utilities already operate old-appliance buy-back programs, for example, in order to reduce wasteful and expensive electricity consumption even while giving low-income consumers a helping hand.