Des Moines Register
05-18-06
Iowans feel driven to pay
Upset by the cost of fuel? Yes. Willing to change our driving habits? No.
By MARY CHALLENDER
REGISTER STAFF WRITER
When it comes to fuel purchases, Melanie Carmichael is pretty much a typical
Iowan.
As she filled her white Suburban at a south-side gas station Monday afternoon, it was clear high gas prices have the 43-year-old mother of three seriously irked.
"Sixty-eight dollars for three-fourths of a tank," she said. Disgusted, she looked at the tally. "Doesn't that just make you want to puke?"
Ask her what she's doing to cut back, though, and Carmichael mentioned holding off on small trips to the grocery store and taking turns with other parents driving to softball and baseball practices, before she admitted the truth: She enjoyed jumping in the sport utility vehicle with her kids and going from one child's activity to the next. She didn't want to narrow their options.
"That's what's funny," she said. "You pretty much have a lifestyle, and you are captive. By and large, we drive just as much today as we always have. It just hurts a little more."
Look around the state and one can find a few more people biking to work and small groups here and there carpooling. If high gas prices are having a substantial impact on the driving habits of Iowans, though, it doesn't show in the numbers.
According to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, in March 2005 about
114 million gallons of unleaded gas were sold in Iowa. Some of it contained 10 percent ethanol gasoline.
One year later, the number had jumped to 123 million gallons.
Some might interpret an 11 percent increase in the number of registered motorcycles in the state during the past four years as a sign that Iowans are becoming more parsimonious.
Look a little deeper, though, and you'll find the number of sport utility vehicles registered jumped 14 percent during the same period.

Not that Iowans didn't have good intentions. An Iowa Poll taken in April 2005, when gas prices were peaking at $2.24 per gallon - about 40 cents cheaper than they are now - found 64 percent of Iowans planning to cut back on their driving if fuel costs continued to increase.
Forty-seven percent said they were prepared to buy a more fuel-efficient car.
Twenty-six percent said they would consider joining a car or van pool.
So, what happened?
Normal consumer behavior, according to Kay Palan, an associate professor of marketing at Iowa State University.
"When we look at pricing of things, we have what's called a reference point," she said. "When I go to buy gas once a week, I compare the price I pay that week to what I paid the week before."
When prices suddenly take a huge jump, it tends to spur people to action, Palan said. But gas prices creep up on us over time; we don't have the sudden change to spur us. From one week to the next, the cost to fill up the tank is pretty much the same.
"It doesn't mean people aren't alarmed, that they're not upset and that they don't talk about it," she said. "It's just not changing behavior yet. It's got to really hit us in the wallet."
A comparison can be made between the way some smokers continue to purchase cigarettes, even though they don't really fit into the budget, Palan said.
"We all have to make some priorities," she said.
"Where we don't want to give up things, we will find ways to accommodate that.
Sometimes foolishly, but that's what we do."
At one time, energy experts believed $3 per gallon gas was the magic price-point that would trigger drivers to conserve.
But we hit that mark after Hurricane Katrina and "as soon as the price went down, people went back to purchasing again," said Tami Foster, an energy data analyst with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.
Iowans aren't unusual in their resistance to cutting back on gasoline consumption, she said.

"As far as demand for fuel and our purchasing habits, we're pretty much in step with the rest of the country," she said.
"We're not seeing a drastic drop by any means in usage because of the price."
Foster said trying to ride out high prices probably isn't the best strategy, at least not if users believe in the laws of supply and demand.
"If we ever want to get to a point where we seriously see a decline in price, we have to see a decline in demand," she said.
Some Iowans have already reached the breaking point.
During the past three years, the number of van pools in MTA's Central Iowa
RideShare program has jumped from 58 to 77.
The program, which just celebrated its 10th anniversary, now has more than 600 commuters in 15 Iowa counties.
Monday was Kathy Nelson's first day as a RideShare driver. Five other people are in her van pool, including a woman who drives from Chariton and meets the van in Indianola.
Nelson, 51, of Ackworth, said she didn't factor in rising gas prices when she took a higher-paying job in Des Moines in July.
At first, she tried to fight back by driving as far as Southridge Mall then taking the bus the rest of the way.
Then she realized that even with the extra effort, she was still spending more than $120 each month on work-related transportation costs.
What will it take to make Iowans embrace conservation?
Nelson just might have the answer.
"When you're hitting $35 a week for gas just to go halfway to work, you start thinking about the alternatives," she said, dryly.
Reporter Mary Challender can be reached at (515) 284-8470 or mchallender@dmreg.com