I’ve been thinking about how the people in this state behave in relationship to their vehicles. Specifically how people in Michigan have idolized their cars and refuse to part with them no matter how expensive it is to operate them. This line of reasoning got me wondering about the price of automobile gasoline and how it affects behavior. Specifically at what stages do people in Michigan start to adapt their behaviors?

So far gas has reached $3.55 per gallon for regular unleaded gasoline. Here’s a continuum of adaptive behaviors that I think people could use if they really wanted to:

• Drop maximum speed to 65 in a 70MPH zone
• Drop maximum speed to 55 in a 70MPH zone
• Consolidate trips, waiting until there is a reason to go out and chaining opportunities to make it all in one trip.
• Carpool
• Use public transportation
• Bicycle riding
• Walking

So far I’ve started to drop my maximum speed between 55 and 60 MPH even in 70MPH zones, I consolidate trips and as soon as the weather improves a bit more, I’ll be taking advantage of public transportation again.

I’ve polled some of my coworkers about their sentiments and from what I can gather, gasoline would have to be above $5 a gallon to force the people in this state to adapt their driving behaviors.

Here’s a question for all my readers, so please comment, what have you done in response to the higher price of gasoline to adapt or cope? Let us know, I look forward to a discussion and possibly more adaptations I haven’t thought about in this blog post. 🙂