Date published: 2008/05/19
The BBC says:
High prices of petrol and diesel are making UK drivers think twice about travelling by car, a survey suggests.
The AA polled 17,500 members, and found 27% had cut back on other areas of spending, 16% had decided to travel less by car, and 21% had done both.
Petrol prices have risen sharply this year, although government figures have only shown car traffic falling 2%.
What a surprise, the fundamental laws of economics do hold after all. When prices rise, demand falls. Traditionally petrol has been a commodity where prices have to rise a lot for there to be much of a fall in demand. And if (for some reason) prices eventually stablise, no matter what the level, then eventually demand will start to creep up again.
And, needless to say, the government figures and the AA figures are not obviously inconsistent. Even if everbody is driving less, it doesn't mean they are driving much less.
_________________________________________________________
All material not included from other sources is copyright cambridge2000.com.
For further information or questions email: info [at] cambridge2000 [dot] com
(replace "[at]" with "@" and "[dot]" with ".").