Soaring gas prices cause changes in habits

STAR/TRIBUNE
Ann Freeman was filling up her Pontiac Vibe, watching the numbers on the pump spin so fast they blurred, when she noticed something she'd never seen before.

"I had never broken 40 bucks on gas before," she said, muttering to herself: "This is ridiculous."

She went home, got out her bicycle and took it in for a tuneup.

"My knees aren't what they used to be," Freeman, 54, said Monday afternoon. "But thanks to higher gas prices, I am motivated to drive less, ride more, save money and consume less."

As the average price of regular gasoline hit $3.88 a gallon Monday in the Twin Cities -- and threatened to enter the $4 orbit last reached in June 2008 -- Freeman wasn't the only one changing habits.

Buses are packed. Bike lanes are jammed. People are juggling child visitation dropoffs and making errand loops instead of separate trips to the vet, the cafe and the grocery store.

"The empirical evidence shows that escalating gas prices prompt people to cut back on driving and travel, work more from home and combine trips," said Prof. Akshay Rao, a marketing expert at the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management. "We are seeing a lot more sensitivity to energy consumption."

For five straight weeks, Americans have bought less gas than in comparable periods last year, according to MasterCard Spending Pulse, which monitors gas sold at 140,000 stations nationwide. The first week of April saw drivers pumping 2.4 million fewer gallons than they did last April -- a 3.6 percent drop despite an economic warmup that has created roughly 1 million jobs in the past year.

"More people are going to work and they should be buying more gas," said John Gamel, MasterCard's gas research director. But more than two-thirds of major gas station chains reported lower sales in a March survey. In the Twin Cities, where the price of gas soared 30 cents this month, that drop is showing up in places large and small.

"The buses are really packed," said Laura Kittelson, who commutes from Chanhassen to her downtown Minneapolis accounting job. "I used to be able to park on the second floor of my park-and-ride ramp. Now they need overflow lots."

Steve Basile and his wife, Naomi Sack, used to make a few errand runs a week from their south Minneapolis home. Both own economy cars, but now Basile says they do "giant errand loops together on the weekend." Recently, that meant combining the dropoff of their dog at the vet for an annual checkup, a grocery run, visits to a book and thrift store, and lunch at a cafe -- all on the same outing. "We sit there and plan it," Basile said. "It cuts our errand driving in half."

For Freeman, that recent $42 fill-up proved to be the boiling point. She used to commute by bike from the Seward neighborhood to her job at the University of Minnesota. She'd use her bike to visit friends, buy groceries and pick up prescriptions. But then she raised two kids, dropping them off at different day-care centers.

Now a grandmother of two with somewhat creaky knees, Freeman says gas prices have motivated her to saddle up again. "That $40 tank," she said, "renewed my commitment to return to those good habits."