I haven’t noticed any difference at all in New Jersey. The Turnpike is just as crowded as ever with big cars and huge SUVs, and forget about getting through the merge after 8A in less than an hour during rush hour Friday evenings.
I also haven’t seen any more scooters or motorcycles on the roads than usual. What I have seen is people TALKING about how many more scooters and motorcycles there are on the roads. Having said that, I am seriously thinking about getting a motorcycle.
I live in a rural area, I haven’t seen a reduction in driving, but I HAVE seen a change in the types of vehicles on the road, fewer trucks/SUV’s and large cars, a lot more midsize/compact/subcompact cars, as well as a lot of older small cars (I’ve noticed a distinct increase in the number of old Civics, Corrollas and Saturn SL series cars)
I haven’t noticed fewer people driving, but I work at a gas station, and we definitely sell less gas than we did 3 months ago. In the past, even though gas prices went up in spring / summer, and people complained and said they’d stay home, we always sold about 10% more gas than in winter. This year, I’d estimate an almost 20% decrease in gallon volume. Gross income from the gas has gone up, of course, but profit is way down - we make less per gallon (though it can fluctuate daily) and sell fewer gallons.
On a couple trips to state parks there have been a lot less people in the areas we went through. Northern Wisconsin has got to be really hurting on the tourist numbers.
I’ve seen a number of old motorcycles with there original owner that decided he has an excuse to ride it around again.
In my area, the bus system sucks. If I wanted to actually use it to get to work, I’d have to bike for at least a mile or two to get to the nearest stop, hope they had room for my bike, and spend 30 minutes on what’s normally a 10-15 minute commute. I’d rather just drive the 5-6 miles to work and back, as we don’t have facilities for showering and changing clothes.
That said, I haven’t noticed fewer cars, but a gradual change in the kinds of cars on the road. There are fewer new SUVs and minivans and more “economical” sedans and wagons. There do, however, seem to be more “ricers” around in the past six months; it seems like some of the drivers out there decided that replacing their “impressive” blinged-out SUV with a blinged-out “ricer” was a better choice.
I live intown in Atlanta. The roads near me in the past would have been teeming with traffic on weeknights. These days, I walk down the street at night and I feel like I could be in a post-apocalyptic movie. Nobody’s out. People get home from work, and they leave those cars parked.
Same thing in the middle of the day, after rush hour ends. Used to be there were lots of cars on the road in my area of the city at all hours of the day. Now, after rush hour, traffic dies down to a trickle. Lunch hour traffic is less, too. (I guess people are eating lunch at work or within walking distance of work, rather than getting out and driving to a restaurant.)