DALLAS -- Want gas prices to fall? Use less.

	The highest price for a gallon of self-serve regular unleaded gasoline at local stations yesterday was $3.29, according to volunteer spotters for pittsburghgasprices.com, while the lowest price was $2.95. AAA East Central said the average local price of a gallon of self-serve regular yesterday was $3.035, up nearly a penny from Sunday's price. ON THE WEB Tell us what changes you're making because of high gas prices. Click to our online poll now. TIPS TO SAVE GASOLINE How can individual motorists lower their gas consumption? One way is to buy a more efficient vehicle. A Toyota Prius averages 55 miles per gallon, compared with a Chevrolet Suburban's 17. Don't like buying foreign? A Pontiac Vibe with an automatic transmission gets a combined average of 31 miles per gallon. Of course, not everyone can go out and buy a new car. And many prefer sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks, even if they consume more gas. For them, Uncle Sam has other tips: Slow down. Speed is expensive. Each five miles per hour you drive over 60 is like adding 20 cents per gallon of gas because of lower fuel efficiency, says the government Web site www.fueleconomy.gov. Drive sensibly. Rapid acceleration and braking lower gas mileage. Remove excess weight. Do you really need to haul those golf clubs everywhere you go when you know you never get time to play? Avoid excessive idling, which gets zero miles per gallon. Cruise control can save gas, and the overdrive gear cuts down on gas usage. Maintain your vehicle. A $200 tune-up can improve gas mileage by an average of 4 percent, according to the government's fuel economy Web site. Replacing a clogged air filter ($25 or less) can boost mileage by up to 10 percent. And keeping tires properly inflated (free) means both lower gas mileage and increased safety. Plan and combine trips, and carpool to work. Going to the supermarket once a week instead of twice (with a third trip to pick up the newspaper you forgot) burns up less gas. And more than 30 years after the first oil crises, only 8 percent of American commuters deign to double up, according to a 2005 poll.

"If half of American drivers pledged, and followed up on the pledge, to use one gallon less gasoline in the month of June, the market would plunge," said Tom Kloza, publisher and chief oil analyst at the Oil Price Information Service in Wall, N.J.

"The difference between a perceived tight market and a sloppy or weak market is about 1 percent worth of demand," he explained.

Mr. Kloza estimated a 1 percent dip in demand could slice 30 cents to 50 cents off wholesale gasoline prices.

Gas prices have climbed the last three months and now top $3 a gallon in many places. That's putting pressure on household budgets as Americans head into the summer vacation driving season.

"I feel it because I commute from Seagoville to Frisco" -- a drive of about 45 miles between the two Texas cities -- said Tamika Morris, 29, as she filled up her Kia Optima yesterday. "I'm spending a lot more," she said, estimating her monthly gas tab has jumped to $140 from $100 early this year.

In fact, motorists are spending less -- on an inflation-adjusted basis -- than they did in March 1981, when prices reached a record high.

Also, as a percent of household spending, gas is a better deal now than then.

Gasoline and oil purchases accounted for something more than 3 percent of spending in 2005 and 2006 -- down from the high of 5 percent in 1981, according to the U.S. Commerce Department.

The proportion was also in the 3 percent range through the '60s and most of the '70s, before actually drifting below that mark in the mid-1980s and early '90s, as real prices dropped.

The blip back up hasn't curtailed purchases.

"Consumers are demanding more, and they're willing to pay for it," said Peyton Feltus, an energy expert in Dallas. "I know consumers won't like to hear that. But the price is not high enough to throttle demand."

To be sure, this doesn't take the sting out of standing at the pump as the numbers click higher. Money spent on gasoline means less for children's shoes -- or, more likely, dinners out. Stores cited rising gas prices as one reason for April's falling retail sales, an unhappy development for an economy fueled by consumer spending.

And it's not like it's just one individual's usage that's pushing up prices. The cost of oil, which accounts for about half the price of gasoline, has been affected by burgeoning demand from developing countries such as China and India -- not to mention political concerns in such oil-rich countries as Iran and Nigeria.

Closer to home, refinery glitches have pushed up prices.

But underlying the oil market's daily ups and downs is American consumers' huge and growing appetite for fuel. Gasoline use has risen steadily this decade, by an annual average of 1.6 percent between 2002 and 2006, according to the Department of Energy.

On a per-capita basis, the average American used nearly 9 percent more gasoline in 2005 than in 1970 -- before the oil shocks and gas lines of 1973 and 1979.

The United States, with 5 percent of the world's population, uses up to a quarter of the world's annual oil output. So what Americans do does count.

"We're the big energy junkie, not China and India," Mr. Feltus said.

Nationally, prices are averaging more than $3 a gallon, and analysts expect they will stay up most of the summer. Gasoline could approach the inflation-adjusted high of more than $3.20 seen in March 1981, they say.

But, truth is, at current price levels, American motorists can afford their gas addiction.

A look at the total number of miles traveled by vehicles in the United States shows a jump of nearly 13 percent between the first three months of 2000 and the corresponding period this year, according to the Federal Highway Administration. But overall fuel efficiency has barely budged.

"What's really driven gasoline demand is miles traveled," said Tancred Lidderdale, an economist with the federal government's Energy Information Administration. "Part of that is the increasing number of drivers, but the other part of it is increasing income, suburbanization," meaning we're moving farther from work and we can afford the drive.

Higher incomes also translate into the freedom to buy a sport utility vehicle or a pickup truck, even if they consume more gas.

"Energy consumption per capita, if we look internationally, is highly related to income," said Stephen Brown, director of energy economics at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. "U.S. income is quite a bit higher now than it was in the 1970s."

At the same time, prices are relatively low here. Gas is far cheaper than in Europe, where fuel taxes are much higher. The Brits currently pay about $7 per gallon, according to their country's Automobile Association.

In other words, American motorists are still getting a bargain on gas -- which helps explain why they keep buying more.

So the next time you're at the pump, staring as the stomach-clenching numbers click past, try telling yourself you're just loading up on the red light special -- at a price you helped create.