So far in 2008, gasoline demand is down in the U.S. by several percentage points from a year ago, gas retailers say.

The decline is remarkable, since gas use should be rising about 1 percent annually just to keep up with the population, said Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst at Oil Price Information Service in Wall, N.J.

"The public has gotten used to $3, just like it got used to $2.50 or $2.75," Kloza said. "But $3.25 seems to be that point where you start to see some behavioral changes."

The News & Observer recently asked readers to keep travel diaries for a week. Many said they were keeping stricter gas budgets or combining trips, but few said they had made drastic cuts yet. Several said they were still taking pleasure trips or optional drives.

Suzanne Lucey of Wake Forest said she likes to drive her two sons to school even though she could put them on a bus. About 45 percent of Wake County students and 35 percent of Johnston County students don't take school buses, either.

Lucey, 40, said driving her sons to and from school creates valuable bonding time. The family is still adjusting to the move from Boston to the Triangle about seven months ago. Her SUV provides a reliable sanctuary, free from the distractions of phones, television and computers, Lucey said.

"We have had so many frank discussions in the car," she said. "I think they feel safe because some of the conversations can be uncomfortable, and they can say things without looking me in the eye, and I can keep a neutral face."

Bill Owens, 53, who lives near Rolesville, also has a high-schooler who doesn't take the bus. Owens' younger son, Robert, a junior at Wake Forest-Rolesville High School, was reassigned to a school closer to Knightdale for his sophomore year. Owens and his wife didn't want to uproot their son. To keep him at the same school, they've had to provide their own transportation.

In July, Robert, 17, began driving himself around in the secondhand 1998 Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck his parents gave him for his birthday.

During his travel diary week, Owens was just going back to work at Embarq's Franklin County offices following foot surgery. So his son drove him to work on the way to school. Owens altered his work schedule to fit his son's. He went to work at 7:30 a.m. instead of 8 a.m. and left at 3:30 p.m., carrying his laptop home so he could work another hour.

Owens said the experience showed him the family could make car-pooling work if it really had to. But he knows his son might balk. "He wants to be Mr. Independent, and, of course, having to drag Dad around is not his cup of tea," Owens said.

Chris Allen, 25, an RTP programmer, has no children to cart around. But he and his fiancee enjoy taking road trips around the state or as far away as northern Ohio to visit friends and family.

Gas prices have reduced the frequency of the couple's weekend trips from their Cary home, Allen said. But on average, they still make about two trips at least an hour away from home every three weeks and drive at least three hours away once a month.

During his diary week, Allen and his fiancee took a 175-mile round trip to Greensboro in his 2008 Honda Civic.

"We simply enjoy driving, if nothing else," he said.

But the trip had several purposes, he added. They wanted to take up a friend's tip to try Stamey's barbecue in Greensboro. They also wanted to play some disc golf and test-drive the newly opened Interstate 40 bypass southwest of Greensboro.

Allen's stick-shift car gets about 35 miles per gallon. With the cost of gas at $3.25 a gallon, the trip cost about $16.25.

Compare that to other forms of entertainment, Allen reasoned. A round of golf costs about $20. Two movie tickets could cost $18. Disc golf in Barber Park in Greensboro, on the other hand, was free.

"We aren't the type of people to go out to the bar on a Friday night and rack up a $40 tab," he said. "So instead of spending money on all that stuff, we spend money on gasoline."

But Allen said keeping a diary for a week made him and his fiancee think harder about taking so many road trips. "Honestly, I feel guilty about driving places just for the sake of driving," he said. "It's awfully wasteful, isn't it?"

Allen plans to budget his car mileage more closely to stay under 2,000 miles a month. He cites two reasons: "Gas prices ... [and] because I'd like my new car to last me a while."