US drivers using less fuel

A University of Michigan researcher has found that despite population growth, fuel consumption by American drivers of light-duty vehicles is now lower than it was 15 years ago.

Michael Sivak of the U-M Transportation Research Institute examined recent trends in fuel consumption by cars, pick-up trucks, SUVs and vans in the US fleet from 1984 to 2012. His findings show that 467.9 billion litres of petrol were consumed in 2012 - down 11% from a peak of 525.4 billion litres in 2004 and less than the 476.6 billion litres used in 1999.

“The decline of 11% since 2004 reflects the decline in distance driven and the improvement in vehicle fuel economy,” said Sivak, Director of the Sustainable Worldwide Transportation research consortium.

In addition to total fuel consumption, Sivak examined fuel-consumption rates per person, per licensed driver, per household and per registered vehicle. He found that all four rates were 13-18% lower in 2012 than in their peak years (2003 for registered vehicles, 2004 for the other three measures). The study also analysed changes in the number of vehicles and distance driven, finding that the corresponding rates per person, per driver and per household each reached their maximum around 2004.

Given that the reductions in these rates began to occur several years prior to the onset of the economic downturn that started in 2008, Sivak believes that the maximum in the rates have a good chance of being long-term peaks. And although economic factors have likely contributed to declining rates since the economic downturn, other societal changes have influenced the need for personal transportation, such as increased telecommuting, increased use of public transportation, increased urbanisation of the population, and changes in the age composition of drivers, he said.

“The combined evidence from this and the previous studies indicates that - per person, per driver and per household - we now have fewer light-duty vehicles, we drive each of them less and we consume less fuel than in the past,” Sivak said. “There is no evidence in the 2012 data that the peaks in the rates that we experienced about 10 years ago were temporary.”