An EKOS Research Associates poll finds evidence of shifting driving habits in response to higher fuel prices. Interestingly, there's a bit of a gender gap.

Excerpts from the Toronto Star story:

The survey by EKOS Research Associates found that 35 per cent of Canadians are driving less, 12 per cent have changed habits — by carpooling, walking more or switching to more fuel-efficient vehicles, for instance — and 11 per cent have done both.

"After years and years of being told to be more energy-efficient, there has been virtually no movement," said Frank Graves, president of EKOS. "Now, massive numbers of Canadians are changing their behaviour because of this."

On Tuesday morning in Toronto, the pump price for one litre of regular gasoline was 103.7 cents, according to MJ Ervin & Associates Inc., a Calgary-based oil and gas industry marketing firm that monitors weekly gas prices. That's down from this year's peak price of 129.2 cents a litre during the week of Sept. 6.

The EKOS survey found differences in the way men and women are coping with such prices.

Nineteen per cent of women said they've started carpooling, while only 9 per cent of men were willing to share their ride. Sixteen per cent of women are walking more, versus only 10 per cent of men. But more men — 43 per cent — said they're making fewer trips. Twenty-seven per cent of women said they're making fewer trips.

It is the most prosperous Canadians who said they've increased carpooling, while lower-income Canadians have said they're more apt to walk, take public transit or not travel at all.

Almost a quarter of 18- to 25-year-olds said they're using public transit more.

Canadians said they're changing their behaviour, and they expect governments to make changes to ease prices as well.

Sixty-five per cent of those surveyed agreed governments have the ability to cushion Canadians from higher gas prices.