New Mexico News
| Changing Habits |
| Posted by () on May 22 2008 at 12:31 PM |
Ted Anderson has parked his Nissan Pathfinder, and his wallet shows it. As gasoline prices go up, Anderson has downsized to a tiny new fuel-efficient Smart car.
"I'm saving $50 a week in gas, easy," Anderson said.
Anderson is apparently not alone. The latest data suggest gasoline prices have pushed a lot of people past the pain point. Consumption is down.
But some people say they don't have the flexibility to adjust and simply have had to pay.
Steve Archambault faced a similar decision to Anderson's. He made the choice to sell his car and ride the bus.
"My wife and I sold one of our two cars," said Archambault, a University of New Mexico economics grad student. He saves on gas and parking, and bus lines between his home Downtown and UNM make the commute easy.
But for every Anderson and Archambault who have changed their behavior in response to rising gas prices, there appear to be an awful lot of people like Jonathan Romero.
Romero works at Jemez Pueblo. His wife works in Albuquerque. Wherever they live, one would have a long commute.
"I was spending about $450 to $500 a month back during the fall and winter, and now I'm all the way up to $600 to $700 a month," he said. "Anyone have a Civic or an Accord to sell?"
Nationwide, gasoline consumption began dropping in early May, according to MasterCard Spending Pulse, a research firm that collects data on both credit card and cash sales.
By last week, it was down 7 percent compared with the same week a year ago.
Comparable data for New Mexico isn't currently available. But an informal survey of gasoline retailers by Ruben Baca of the New Mexico Petroleum Marketers Association suggests the drop in gasoline sold here could be even larger.
Baca said retailers in the Albuquerque metro area are selling 5 to 10 percent less gasoline this year compared with a year ago. In rural New Mexico, according to Baca, the drop could be as much as 20 percent.
In Albuquerque, you can see the change clearly at places like the standing-room-only ABQRide 222 bus, which carries commuters from the Rail Runner Rio Bravo Station to Kirtland Air Force.
May numbers aren't available yet, but Albuquerque bus ridership in April was up 19 percent compared with a year ago. That means more than 2,000 more people are riding the bus this year in Albuquerque compared with last year, according to ABQRide's Dan Dunne.
While that may sound like a lot of people, it's still a drop in the bucket compared with the number in the Albuquerque area who commute by car— an estimated 300,000, according to the latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau.
The problem, according to Chris Blewett of the Mid-Region Council of Governments, is that many people in Albuquerque do not have any alternatives to using their car to get around.
There are more subtle signs as well. Carlos Garcia, who runs the state's only Smart car dealership, sells them as fast as Daimler can make them and currently has an 18-month waiting list.
Initially, customers seemed primarily interested in the car because it was stylish and cute, Garcia said. But in the past two months, as gas topped $3.50 a gallon, Garcia has seen a shift to customers wanting to talk about the car's gas mileage.
The shift is especially noticeable in the used car market, said Garcia, whose family operates a number of dealerships in Albuquerque. "We're not selling big trucks and SUVs anymore, and people are trading them in," Garcia said.
That's the situation Albuquerque resident Jeremy Hollier faces. He currently drives a four-door Dodge Ram pickup that gets just 16 miles a gallon— "which is good for a truck that size," he said Tuesday as he eyed one of Garcia's 40-miles-per-gallon Smart cars.
With prices continuing to rise, Baca expects more to come. Some stations around New Mexico were flirting with the $4 per gallon level Wednesday.
"When it hits ... $4 ... then it's, 'Katy bar the door,' '' he said.
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