{"id":799,"date":"2026-06-02T16:11:52","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T16:11:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reliablemovingcrews.com\/?p=799"},"modified":"2026-06-02T16:11:52","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T16:11:52","slug":"sticker-shock-meets-gridlock-la-motorists-keep-driving-at-any-price","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reliablemovingcrews.com\/?p=799","title":{"rendered":"Sticker shock meets gridlock: LA motorists keep driving at any price"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><div><div><ul><li>Summary<\/li><\/ul><\/div><div><\/div><\/div><div>LOS ANGELES, June 2 (Reuters) &#8211; If you thought soaring pump prices \u200bsince the onset of the Iran war might help clear the notoriously clogged highways of Los Angeles, think \u200cagain. Drivers in the often-gridlocked city &#8211; where regular unleaded gasoline prices are well over $6 per gallon &#8211; appear accustomed to sticker shock, according to data provided to Reuters by government officials.<\/div><div>The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), in an exclusive analysis for Reuters, found that major Los Angeles-area freeways overall showed \u200bno significant declines in vehicle miles traveled since the U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran on February 28.<\/div><div>That analysis, \u200bcovering roughly eight weeks ended April 23, examined traffic data from freeways including Interstates 405, 10 \u2060and 5. Those are some of the nation&#8217;s busiest, and part of the nation&#8217;s cultural fabric due to Hollywood films \u200band viral national news events like O.J. Simpson&#8217;s slow-speed police chase in 1994.<\/div><div>While traffic on most major freeway sections moved only slightly \u200bup or down, some showed increases of nearly 9% or declines of almost 3% during the period analyzed.<\/div><div>&#8220;I think we&#8217;re immune,&#8221; said Los Angeles resident Marco Falcon, 44, who shrugged when told about the finding.<\/div><div>The data supports more than two decades of research showing that U.S. demand for \u200bgasoline is mostly inelastic &#8211; meaning drivers are either unwilling or unable to change their habits even when prices spike.<\/div><div>Indeed, a paper published \u200bby the National Bureau of Economic Research in 2006 found that drivers changed their habits much less during gasoline price surges in the \u200c2000s than \u2060they did during the oil shock of the 1970s.<\/div><div>The average price for a gallon of regular gas in Los Angeles was $6.07 on Monday, up almost 28% from a year ago and 36% above the national average, according to data from automobile club AAA.<\/div><div>While nobody likes paying more for gas, Falcon said, Los Angeles drivers understand the nation&#8217;s highest gas prices are just part of \u200bliving in car-obsessed California.<\/div><div>&#8220;You just \u200bgotta figure out what your \u2060priorities are,&#8221; said Falcon, who continues to drive because using lower-cost buses would take three to four times longer.<\/div><div>&#8220;Time is money for me.&#8221;<\/div><div>Total weekday bus and train ridership was up 1.6% \u200byear-on-year for the combined months of March and April, while passenger miles rose 0.8%, according \u200bto data from \u2060the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LA Metro).<\/div><div>While high gas prices may have contributed to the gains, the network also has added new stations and expanded to new areas, an agency spokesperson said.<\/div><div>&#8220;People don&#8217;t change their behavior much,&#8221; said Brian Taylor, a research fellow \u2060at the \u200bInstitute of Transportation Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles.<\/div><div>If traffic \u200bsometimes seems lighter in Los Angeles, Taylor said, it is because small reductions in vehicles on the city&#8217;s near-capacity freeways create outsized changes in flow.<\/div><div>&#8220;A 10% \u200bdrop in traffic can result in a 40% or 50% drop in delay,&#8221; Taylor said.<\/div><div><address><div><div><noscript>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"120\" height=\"120\" alt=\"Lisa Baertlein\" class=\"wp-image-798\" src=\"https:\/\/reliablemovingcrews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/b764eedbe27c7f9d0682f8536f8f2bb0.avif\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/noscript><\/div><div>Lisa Baertlein<\/div><\/div><div><ul><li><span><div><svg><title>Email<\/title><\/svg><\/div><\/span><\/li><li><span><div><svg><title>X<\/title><\/svg><\/div><\/span><\/li><li><span><div><svg><title>Linkedin<\/title><\/svg><\/div><\/span><\/li><\/ul><\/div><\/address><\/div><\/div><p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/reliablemovingcrews.com\/?p=796\">Exclusive: UK adopts SpaceX\u2019s Starshield for military operations, sources say<\/a><\/p><p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/reliablemovingcrews.com\/?p=793\">Sweden prepares prisons for 13-year-old gang killers<\/a><\/p><p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/reliablemovingcrews.com\/?p=791\">Putin\u2019s \u2018Davos\u2019 haunted by war and stagnation despite the swank of influencers<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you thought soaring pump prices \u200bsince the onset of the Iran war might help clear the notoriously clogged highways of Los Angeles, think \u200cagain. Drivers in the often-gridlocked city &#8211; where regular unleaded gasoline prices are well over $6 per gallon &#8211; appear accustomed to sticker shock, according to data provided to Reuters by government officials.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":797,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[29,7],"class_list":["post-799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-transport-fuels","tag-united-states"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Sticker shock meets gridlock: LA motorists keep driving at any price - Reliable Moving Crews<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/reliablemovingcrews.com\/?p=799\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sticker shock meets gridlock: LA motorists keep driving at any price - Reliable Moving Crews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"If you thought soaring pump prices \u200bsince the onset of the Iran war might help clear the notoriously clogged highways of Los Angeles, think \u200cagain. Drivers in the often-gridlocked city - where regular unleaded gasoline prices are well over $6 per gallon - appear accustomed to sticker shock, according to data provided to Reuters by government officials.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/reliablemovingcrews.com\/?p=799\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Reliable Moving Crews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-02T16:11:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/reliablemovingcrews.com\\\/?p=799#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/reliablemovingcrews.com\\\/?p=799\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/reliablemovingcrews.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/34f02a869ba60b78ae3d994f205e0d24\"},\"headline\":\"Sticker shock meets gridlock: LA motorists keep driving at any price\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-02T16:11:52+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/reliablemovingcrews.com\\\/?p=799\"},\"wordCount\":538,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/reliablemovingcrews.com\\\/?p=799#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/reliablemovingcrews.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/979ce988e451a6a34fa539fad79a23d2.avif\",\"keywords\":[\"Transport Fuels\",\"United States\"],\"articleSection\":[\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/reliablemovingcrews.com\\\/?p=799#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/reliablemovingcrews.com\\\/?p=799\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/reliablemovingcrews.com\\\/?p=799\",\"name\":\"Sticker shock meets gridlock: LA motorists keep driving at any price - 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