Soaring gas prices cause Americans to re-think the way we drive

If not for the soaring price of gas, Melissa Monroy would drive to work, drive to school and head out on weekends.

But the 30-year-old Northwest Side paralegal, like the rest of us, has to contend with the jaw-dropping prices. So when her Honda broke down recently, Monroy didn't head to a car dealer. She headed to the bus stop.

"I was going to get another car, but as the prices went up, I said 'no way,' " Monroy said. "I couldn't afford to go to school. I just decided not to get another car. I said, 'I'm going to have to deal with it.' "

Monroy is not alone in staying off the roads.

Americans drove 30 billion fewer miles from November through April than during the same period a year before, the biggest such drop since the Iranian revolution led to gasoline supply shortages in 1979-80.

Thirty billion miles. That's about five trips to Pluto and back.

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