THE FUTURE OF NEVADA

What is your take on the future of Nevada?

What is your take on the future of Nevada?

During 2008, Nevada commuters realized extreme variability in gasoline prices. Prices for regular unleaded gasoline increased from $3.116 per gallon in January to its highest price of $4.268 per gallon in June and subsequently fell to $1.804 per gallon in December1. The increased volatility of the cost of gasoline has impacts across the state's economy. Individuals who commute to and from work bear a considerable share of the financial burden of rising and unstable gasoline prices.

In the state of Nevada, 89 percent of all workers drive to work (this includes those who work from home). Of all workers who leave home to work, 92 percent drive to work. Although automobile commuting encompasses the majority of Nevada's workers, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation, commuting only accounts for 15 percent of all trips nationally.3 However, commuting trips account for 28 percent of all miles traveled. So while commuting makes up a relatively small percentage of vehicle trips taken, it is still a sizeable portion of total vehicle travel in miles, and is a good indicator of the overall driving patterns within a region.

Measuring Gasoline Use in Nevada

The U.S. Decennial Census reports commuting data such as total workers, commuters, commuting times, carpooling data and transportation mode use across the country. This study used the 2000 Census commuting time information for the state of Nevada and created commuting distance averages from the given time segments in every Nevada ZIP code. The averages were based on the given travel time and average speed estimates. Next, miles per gallon (mpg) estimates were made for each travel time segment. Mpg estimates were based on the Bureau of Transportation Statistics' fuel consumption data and the U.S. Department of Energy's Fuel Economy Guide. Once travel distances and fuel economy were calculated, total gallons used per trip could be calculated for each trip taken by a commuter.

The results included a range of commuting trips; the shortest time segment traveling just under 1 mile using .06 gallons of gas, a trip of 20 miles using .96 gallons of gas, to a trip of at least 110 miles using 3.27 gallons of gas. Gasoline use between segments was not linear because of both better fuel economy at moderate speeds and it was assumed that shorter trips would have a lower average speed due to a higher proportion of the total travel time warming up, idling, traveling on surface streets and parking. These values yielded an average gas mileage of 20.3 mpg, which is just above the 20.2 mpg weighted average of all passenger cars, motorcycles, small trucks and SUVs from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics' data.

Nevada's Commuting Gas Consumption

The majority of all Nevada gas consumption is in the metropolitan areas of Las Vegas and Reno (Figure 1). This is not surprising since this is where the majority of the population lives and ...