Last night, on NPR's All Things Considered Scott Horsley considered how high gas prices would have to get before Americans would change their behaviour. The answer according to one survey: $4/gallon before most Americans would start driving higher mpg vehicles.
This is disturbing on a number of levels. First, that gas prices would have to go that high before anyone would do anything. Second, that the only thing Americans would do is drive different cars. In the report, there was no suggestion that a "change in behaviour" would include the use of public transportation, car pooling, living closer to workplaces, bicycling or walking more, or even increasing telecommuting. I hope that this is just presumptuousness on the part of the reporters and survey writers, but I fear otherwise.
Finally, last week, my company put up a sign up sheet for car pooling. (I didn't sign up because I'm a bicycle commuter.) One person, so far, has signed up, but I think that was a prank his colleagues were playing on him.