While summer season kicked in, Americans got out of their cars, driving 12.2 billion fewer miles in June than the same month a year earlier.

According to the Houston Chronicle, “the 4.7 percent decline, which came while gas prices were peaking, was the biggest monthly driving drop in a downward trend that began in November, the Federal Highway Administration said today.”

Overall from November through June, Americans drove 53.2 billion fewer miles than they did over the same eight month period a year earlier, according to the latest monthly report on driving by the highway agency, which is a larger decline than the 49.3 billion fewer miles driven by Americans over the entire decade of the 1970s. That was a period marked by oil embargoes and gas lines, the agency said.

Cathy Keefe, Travel Industry Association spokeswoman, said the June driving decline “is not surprising given the environment that we were in.” Yet, she was optimistic that the recent drop in gas prices to below $4 a gallon in many parts of the country will bring travelers on the road again.

As reported by the Chronicle, “the June driving data, collected by more than 4,000 automatic traffic recorders operated round-the-clock by state highway agencies, were supported by a telephone survey by AARP of people age 50 and over in which 67 percent said they have cut back on their driving because of high gas prices.”

To read the entire article from the Houston Chronicle, link here:

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