Gasoline Use in U.S. Continues 30-Year Decline: UMTRI
Burney Simpson
American drivers used less gasoline in 2013 than 2012, continuing a 30-year decline in the use of the vehicle fuel, according to the latest update in a multipart study by the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI) in Ann Arbor.
Gas usage levels rose to a peak a decade ago, according to Research Professor Michael Sivak, but overall numbers have been declining since 1984, the start date for his study, ‘Has Motorization in the U.S. Peaked?’
In the Part 7 update of the study, Sivak found that in 2013 gallons of gasoline consumed in the U.S. per person, driver, vehicle and household were below 1984 levels, “and down 14 percent to 19 percent from peak levels a little more than a decade ago (2003-2004).”
Sivak believes the declines are due to greater vehicle fuel economy combined with societal changes that include increased telecommuting and use of public transportation, an urbanization of the population, and fewer light duty vehicles that are driven less.
He reports that:
- “In 2013, the amount of fuel consumed was about 392 gallons per person (down 17 percent from 2004), 583 gallons per driver (down 16 percent from 2004), 524 gallons per vehicle (down 14 percent from 2003) and 1,011 gallons per household (down 19 percent from 2004).
- In 1984, annual fuel-consumption rates were 400 gallons per person, 608 gallons per driver, 602 gallons per vehicle and 1,106 gallons per household.”
The declines reported from 2004 to 2103 occurred despite population growth of about 8 percent.
The study is an analysis of changes from 1984 through 2013 “in the number of registered light-duty vehicles, and the corresponding changes in distance driven and fuel consumed,” according to a release from Sivak, a research professor in UMTRI’s Human Factors Group.
