When gas prices go up, do people drive less? This motion chart uses data from the Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) to compare gas prices and vehicle miles traveled for the 15 metro areas TTI classifies as “Very Large.” For the time period of 1982-2014, the chart uses the following variables:
- Daily vehicle-miles of travel (VMT) on freeways (in thousands)
- Average gasoline cost ($/gallon, for each respective state)
- Annual hours of delay due to congestion (in thousands, using a TTI formula)
- Population (thousands)
You can select the checkbox next to “Atlanta” on the right-hand side to see how our metro compares to others (also, uncheck the “Trails” button below the names if you do not want the selected metro to create a line). Click the play button to see the trends!
Overall, Atlanta has some of the cheapest annual gas prices compared to the other metros. Note that this chart only includes data through 2014, so does not reflect the recent drop in gas prices. As a general trend for all the metro areas, the increase in gas prices (peaking in 2008 and 2012) does not seem to cause a significant decrease in VMT. One may think that as gas prices increase people will drive less, but it seems that, at least at these prices, VMT generally remains consistent. Regardless of the cost, people have to get to their destinations, so they continue to drive, perhaps compensating for the increase costs in other areas of their budget.
The next chart uses the same data, but looks specifically at Atlanta. As you can see in more detail, there is a very small decrease in VMT when gas prices peak in 2007, but the same general steady increase remains throughout the time period.
