Fuel price fallout

Here at Flow, we’re as aware as anyone that fuel prices drive much more than the cost of fuelling up your car. We’ve mentioned these rising prices again, and again, and again, in noting that, simply: as fuel prices continue to rise (and rise, and rise), something else happens as a result.

The bottom line is that rising fuel prices have spillover consequences across the board, from increased prices for consumer goods to reduced demand for gas-guzzling vehicles. But while some of these rising costs are intuitive, others are either more subtle or, at least, more unexpected. Here, then, are three consequences of rising gas prices that you might not have considered.

(As for the rest, we’ll keep you posted. After all, in a world fuelled by, well, fuel, there’s never any shortage of energy news.)

Fewer fatalities
According to researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, “For every 10 per cent rise in gas prices, fatalities are reduced by 2.3 percent.” And as if those numbers weren’t impressive enough, reductions are even higher among teen drivers.

With the report’s authors, Drs. Michael Morrisey David Grabowski, tracing the lowered fatalities to lower vehicle use and speed (a measure that’s long been known to both improve engine efficiency), the findings prove that there’s something to be said for drivers being forced to use their dangerous vehicles less. And while drivers aren’t likely to cheer higher prices for the fuel they use, it’s difficult to argue with results.

More online visitors
One of the tips often supplied as a counter to the emission-producing problem of international travel is carbon offsetting, but a more basic method is simply avoiding travel altogether. With improved telecommunications technologies, most would-be travelers can simply videoconference their way into a face-to-face meeting, or gather all the information they need online.

For students, as cited in the linked New York Times article above, online classes have long been a way to avoid any number of unpleasant physical realities like overcrowded classrooms and that troublesome Delta House. Delta House!!

In Canada, online schools like Athabasca University boast benefits like flexible schedules and space (i.e, wherever you’d like to be). And with fuel prices making a drive to school prohibitive, the attraction of those benefits is bound to draw more students from brick and mortar to bandwidth and mouse.

Fewer suburbanites

Urban sprawl continues to shuttle millions of Canadians back and forth between their suburban homes and downtown workplaces , resulting in homes being directly responsible for increasing vehicle use. But as that vehicle use becomes more and more costly, the real value of those homes begins to decline even more precipitously than it already is.

For some critics , this is just one of the many secondary benefits of increasing fuel prices — increasing the real costs of things whose cost was otherwise hidden. Now suburbanites, in addition to finding a home with the requisite square footage and master-bedroom-accessible-bathroom, have to consider the cost of their daily commute as well.