Per-Capita Gasoline Consumption in Pacific Northwest Fell 5% in 2008; Down 15% Since 1999

11 July 2009

The states of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho cut back their per-capita gasoline consumption by 5% in 2008, according to a new analysis by the Sightline Institute. Total gasoline use fell by 180 million gallons in those Pacific Northwest states.

Weekly gas sales in the Northwest states declined from 7.8 gallons per person to 7.4 gallons. Nationwide in the United States, in 2008, Americans consumed about 8.2 gallons of gasoline per week, down from 8.6 gallons in 2007.

Still, the 2008 drop in gasoline consumption was not solely a response to soaring prices; it was an acceleration of a slide that had been underway for most of the last decade. Per-capita gasoline consumption diminished in the Northwest in eight of the last nine years. The 2008 fall in per-capita Northwest gas consumption was just the largest of these declines.

—“Easing Off the Gas”

From 1999 to 2008, per-capita consumption of gasoline in the Northwest fell by 15%—from 8.7 gallons a week in 1999 to 7.4 gallons per week in 2008. Northwesterners reduced their consumption by more than 50 gallons per person per year over the period, reaching the lowest per-capita gas usage in the region since 1965.

Total consumption, not per-capita consumption, declined slightly in eight of the last ten years.

In the Northwest, total (not per-capita) VMT was down 3.5% in the first quarter of 2009 compared to the first quarter of 2008 and 3.3% from the first quarter of 2007. 2009’s first quarter VMT was at the same level as 2004’s first quarter VMT.

Sightline attributed the decrease to four main trends:

• Transit ridership is up.
• Fuel efficiency is up.
• Vehicle travel is down.
• Land use and transportation policies are changing.

Resources

• Easing off the Gas: Northwesterners Using Less Gasoline