Most feel gas pinch… but keep driving

Polling director Gary Langer blogs about today’s ABC News poll: My dad used to joke about the sign outside a roadside hash house: "Eat Here — Get Gas." These days, though, it’s not the rest-stop food that’s producing heartburn — it’s the price at the pump. Sixty percent of Americans in our latest ABC News poll say the cost of gasoline is causing financial hardship in their homes. (At left, not the actual sign.) But what they’re doing about it is another issue — and the answer turns out to be, not much at all. Just 15 percent plan to cut back on their driving in the weeks ahead, and just 10 percent plan to drive less specifically because of the price of gas. About as many, 12 percent, actually plan to drive more, likely reflecting summer travel plans. Plans to cut back on driving have dropped sharply, moreover – from 50 percent when gas prices spiked after Hurricane Katrina, to 30 percent after they jumped again in the spring, and down to 15 percent now. Some folks already have cut back where they can easily do so. Another, probably bigger factor is that people are grudgingly getting used to it: Gas, after all, hasn’t been below $2.15 in a year. (Back in the days when my dad was cracking wise, he’d pay 34 cents a gallon and get a clean windshield in the bargain.) The bottom line is that it’s just plain hard to drive less in our car-based society. Instead people are spending less on other things (39 percent in our poll), saving less (20 percent) or borrowing more on credit cards or other loans – none terribly encouraging trends for the broader economy. Those hardest hit by gas prices include people with kids (think of all those runs to soccer, ballet and the dentist), folks who live outside of metro areas (it’s a longer haul to the mall) as well as, naturally, those with lower incomes. At what price will people actually change their driving habits? Tough to predict, but when we asked, the average answer was $4.16 per gallon – a price that makes today’s $3 gas look positively tolerable.