For the short term people will try to cut back on driving and save, but as they get used to the higher prices, it becomes the norm and they forget how much they hated paying for more expensive gas. It becomes accepted.

I think people in this country just enjoy driving their cars/trucks too much!

We bought a mid-size SUV with some bells and whistles as our new family car for the two of us, the dogs and first child (of several) on the way. That SUV is now our only gas powered vehicle as we sold the other, working, but slightly too small car (for the lifestyle detailed above) that my wife came into our marriage with. Thankfully we moved to a place where we can commute with relatively little gas use as well as run our errands in close proximity too (no more than 4 miles to our furthest stores, most within 2 miles). We fill up every other week and while the mileage isnt great as its mostly around town driving, its pretty limited in distance.

I think even if gas went up more, we would probably stop doing a few things, but still keep the SUV as it is very useful – as found with multiple trips to the hardware store with the new house, as well as doing family related things with a car and trunk full of stuff.

IF we had a long commute like most people we would probably pool in a smaller car and keep the SUV for the weekends etc when we needed it, but thankfully we dont have to make that choice as we chose the house nice and close in. I cycle 3 miles to work every day, my wife is only a mile from the house. It works for us for now, we’ll see when gas goes up more how we respond.

(By the way, the tone of the post is not due to your post specifically. It was actually provoked by a few other posts I read recently.)