Back to the mid-60s: Driving and gas consumption drop half a century

We’ve reported before that, according to engineering data, traffic volumes in and out of downtown Vancouver are equal to what they were about 1965.

Now the Sightline Institute finds that other indicators just to our south seem to be lining up with that date:

According to an analysis released by Sightline on Wednesday (PDF), per capita gas consumption by Oregonians residents was 7.1 gallons per week in 2011. In Washington, it was 7.3 gallons a week.

At its peak in the late 1970s, per capita gas consumption in the Northwest was about 10.4 gallons a week. The region has fallen to 1964 levels, the study shows.

Meanwhile, the study shows personal vehicle travel on “state-owned roads” has skidded 13 percent since 2002, something that the institute considers “a real shift in our relationship with our cars.”

As has been reported by Hard Drive in the past, young Americans aren’t as interested in driving as they have been in the past.