Changes Coming to the Rio Grande Valley with Permanent High Gas Prices
Many authorities are now predicting what we have said, that oil will in the next two years be over $150 per barrel ( some even predict $200) and that gasoline will reach $5 per gallon within the next year or so. How will this affect the average commuter in the Rio Grande Valley?
According to payscale.com research the average Texas commuter takes 20 to thirty minutes to get to work each day. In 2004 the Texas A&M research center reported that 95.4 percent of workers use a car to get to work. The vast majority of workers drive alone to work. TAMU found that 60 percent of workers commuted less than 24 minutes to work. Various studies by the U.S. Department of Transportation and others would indicate that these workers are averaging about 12 to17 miles in commuting distance from their home to their work place.
In the Rio Grande Valley it is estimated that the most common vehicles purchased in the past few years have been pickups and SUV’s for which we can estimate a miles per gallon rating of no more than 12 MPG. It works out that the average Valley resident will be spending about $70 per week or $280 per month in gasoline just to go work. Many who have office type jobs will be able to accomplish some if not all of their work from home. Large companies like banks will likely begin to have many workers actually working from home via the internet.
This will cause permanent changes in how we live. Living far from our place of work will become financial burdensome if not impossible for modest income earners. Pickups and SUV’s as we know them will disappear from the roads in a very short time. There has to be a plan for mass transportation that is convenient and available in at least the must urban areas like McAllen, Harlingen, and Brownsville. Like Europeans, we will become more focused in living in the immediate five miles near our home. Retail buying will decrease and internet buying will increase. Shoppers will consolidate trips and even though overall buying may be less, it is likely that someone who spends the money on gas to shop will do so with an intent to buy rather than just browse. There will be more retail competition inside neighborhoods instead of across various neighborhoods. People will not drive long distances to shop at discount sales unless it is for a high priced item significantly discounted. Very likely, downtown urban centers such as is under discussion in McAllen, may be coincidently helped in development as people seek to live and work in the same areas where they can walk instead of drive.