As Gas Prices Rise, Traffic Accidents Decrease

Editor Note:  What an interesting consequence.......

Newswise — As gasoline prices reach $4 a gallon throughout the nation, pain at the pump seems to have at least one silver lining for drivers.

A study by Mississippi State's Social Science Research Center indicates that rising gas prices create an accompanying decline in all traffic accidents, including drunk-driving crashes.

Researcher Guangqing Chi, an assistant professor of sociology at the university, recently published his findings in the Journal of Safety Research and Accident Analysis and Prevention.

An SSRC demographer, Chi examined a range of factors related to driving-related accidents in the state, including age, gender and race. The study analyzed total traffic crashes between April 2004 and December 2008, comparing gas prices to traffic safety statistics.

"The results suggest that prices have both short-term and intermediate-term effects on reducing traffic crashes," he reports in the journal article.

Among other points, the research also shows gas prices having a short-term impact on crashes involving younger drivers and intermediate-term impact related to older drivers and men.

Chi said short-term impact refers to immediate effects, for example how a current month's average gasoline prices affect the same month's traffic crashes. Intermediate-term impact refers to effects over a one-year subsequent time period.

While previous research linked traffic-related fatalities to gas price fluctuations, limited research has shown the effects of prices on all traffic accidents. No research previously examined the link between drunk-driving crashes and gas prices, Chi observed.

His research also found significant connections between gas prices and a reduced frequency of alcohol-related crashes.

Other researchers contributing to the study include SSRC director Arthur Cosby; David Levinson, an associate professor of civil engineering at the University of Minnesota; and Mohammed Quddus, a senior lecturer in transportation studies at the University of Loughborough, United Kingdom.

-----

Community News You Can Use
Click to read MORE news:
www.GeorgiaFrontPage.com
Twitter: @gafrontpage & @TheGATable @HookedonHistory
www.ArtsAcrossGeorgia.com
Twitter: @artsacrossga, @softnblue, @RimbomboAAG @FayetteFP

Decline in Industrial Natural Gas Consumption Tied to Influences Other Than Recession

/PRNewswire/ -- Economists at C. H. Guernsey & Company have determined that the decline in industrial natural gas consumption since January 2008 is partly associated with a long-term trend in energy efficiency and structural changes to the economy and is not solely related to the effects of the recession. The Energy Information Administration reported that U. S. industrial natural gas consumption declined by approximately 14% during the recessionary period since January 2008 for a net average monthly decline of 80.4 Bcf. In fact, the Guernsey economists, Don Murry and Zhen Zhu, also found that if the price of natural gas had not declined by nearly 50% over the same period, industrial natural gas consumption probably would have declined by over 19%.

Murry and Zhu found that only 73 Bcf per month was a direct effect of the decline in economic activity. This is the rate at which the natural gas industrial sales are likely to expand even with a strong economic recovery, and this is only if prices stay near their current level. The economists associated the remainder of the decline with longer- term trends reducing gas consumption per unit of industrial output such as improvements in energy efficiency and changes in the economic structure.

As a corollary to their modeling, they determined that fuel switching had little effect, either positively or negatively, on the level of industrial natural gas consumption during this period. This is very likely because fuel oil prices declined at similar rates during the period. A brief explanation of the study can be found http://www.chguernsey.com/ema.

-----
www.fayettefrontpage.com
Fayette Front Page
www.georgiafrontpage.com
Georgia Front Page