Des Moines Register
11-06-06
Iowans hit the road again as fuel prices take a dive
By WILLIAM PETROSKI
REGISTER STAFF WRITER
Motorists in Iowa are putting more miles on their cars and trucks since gasoline
prices dipped sharply from summer levels that peaked in the $3 per gallon range.
Traffic volume on the state's roads totaled more than 2.7 billion miles in
September, which was 63 million miles more than in September 2005, according
to the Iowa Department of Transportation. That's a 2 percent increase.
September was the first month since January in which travel increased on Iowa's
roads when compared with the same month last year, records show.
There is no doubt that some people are now doing more discretionary driving
since gasoline prices declined from earlier highs, said David Swenson, an
economist at Iowa State University.
"You know, when we were up toward $3 a gallon, many people were of the sense
that, 'Geez, if it would just drop to $2.50 I would feel like I was breaking even,' "
Swenson said. "Then we got a bonus and it came down to $2."
Ethanol-blended gasoline has been selling for about $2.05 per gallon in the Des
Moines area recently. As recently as mid-July, the average statewide price for
regular unleaded with 10 percent ethanol was $2.92 per gallon, according to the
Iowa Department of Natural Resources. In mid-September, the statewide price
for ethanol-blended gas was $2.26 per gallon, and by mid-October it was $2.10
per gallon.
Bob Astley, 65, a truck driver from Des Moines, said he cut back on his personal
driving over the summer and didn't take any camping trips to Colorado and other
out-of-state places because of high gasoline prices. Instead, he stuck closer to
home, staying at Saylorville Lake, Jester Park and other campgrounds in central
Iowa.
But as gasoline prices have dropped, Astley said he is once again putting more
miles on his personal vehicle.
"I have gone back more to normal. It's more affordable now," he said.
Joe Ochoa, who recently moved to West Des Moines from southern California
with his wife and two children to work at an alarm company, said he has been
elated at Iowa's lower gasoline prices. He had been paying $3.74 a gallon on the
West Coast, he said.
"It's great. It's wonderful" to pay slightly more than $2-per-gallon for gasoline,
said Ochoa, who was filling his vehicle at a convenience store in Waukee.
Just how long gasoline prices will remain in the $2 per gallon range isn't clear,
said Bill Blum, a program planner in the DNR's Energy Bureau.
"We have a Wheel of Fortune here," he said, because of fluctuating global prices
for crude oil.
One safe bet: Expect gasoline prices to rise just before Thanksgiving because of
increased driving over the long holiday weekend, Blum said. But that increase
could be tempered if there are forecasts for winter storms that cause people to
cancel their trips, he added.
Despite the psychological shock of recent gasoline prices, fuel costs are not
taking as big a bite out of the average household income as they did when
compared with the recession years of the early 1980s, Swenson said. Now, in
contrast, the economy is expanding, he noted.
"What has happened is that our average household incomes are much higher
than they were back then," he said. "Our incomes are still higher after adjusting
for inflation."
Megan Knapp, 31, of Waukee, who works at American Republic Insurance in
Des Moines, is among Iowans whose driving habits have been unaffected by
gasoline prices. She said she is an Iowa Hawkeye football fan and will drive to
the games in Iowa City despite the cost.
"Gas isn't too high for the Hawkeyes," Knapp said.
Nicole McGlothlan, 29, who lives in Des Moines' Beaverdale neighborhood, also
said her driving habits have been unaltered by gasoline prices.
"It really doesn't make any difference to me. It's just the same," said McGlothlan,
who is a mortgage broker.
But she did buy a Honda convertible sports car about a year ago that gets close
to 30 miles per gallon, which is much better gas mileage than her old Jeep
Cherokee sport-utility vehicle, she said.
Iowa's trucking industry, which relies heavily on diesel fuel, has seen slightly
lower freight volumes than a year ago. But freight shipments remain high, and
there continues to be a shortage of drivers, said Scott Weiser, president of the
Iowa Motor Truck Association.
Businesses that ship freight, rather than trucking firms, typically absorb most of
the cost of higher fuel bills through surcharges, he said.
Through the first nine months of 2006, motorists on Iowa's roads drove about
24.4 billion miles, which was flat when compared with the same period in 2005.
During all of 2005, vehicles logged about 31.7 billion miles on Iowa's roads,
which was down 222 million miles from 2004.
That was the first time since 1985 that Iowa had recorded an annual decline in
the number of miles traveled, and it was in contrast to substantial increases in
many previous years.
Since the mid-1930s, Iowa has recorded a drop in vehicle miles traveled in only
nine years. Most of those years were associated with World War II when gasoline
was rationed, with the Arab oil embargoes of the 1970s and with the farm crisis
of the 1980s.
The cost for regular gasoline in Iowa last year averaged $2.18 per gallon, up
from $1.77 per gallon in 2004, DNR records show.