How High Gas Prices Can Lead to Lower Auto Insurance Rates
Saturday, July 31st, 2010Auto Owners Insurance Company Home Office Building (1951) Kenneth C. Black Associates, Inc.

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The main entrance lobby, c. 1970.
For more information on the Auto Owners Insurance Company Home Office Building, Kenneth C. Black Associates, Inc., and Mid-Century Modern architecture and design in Michigan, visit www.michiganmodern.org
How High Gas Prices Can Lead to Lower Auto Insurance Rates
If all of our neighbors would just drive even less, we’d get lower auto insurance rates.
And that could be in the process of happening. When Americans spend less time on the road, the frequency of auto accidents declines. And when auto accidents go down, so do claims on auto insurance. That gets the ball rolling: When auto insurance companies see their costs on claims declining steadily, they typically respond to market conditions by lowering their auto insurance quotes and, ultimately auto insurance rates in a bid to stay competitive. And voila!, we write smaller checks for our auto insurance premiums.
With run-away gas prices, Americans are already driving less. The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) reported in May 2008 that Americans are driving at “historic lows.” The estimated “vehicle miles traveled,” or VMT, for March 2008 fell 4.3 percent compared to March 2007, making it the sharpest dip for any month since the FHWA began tracking traffic-volume trends in 1942. Want to follow driving trends? The FHWA publishes monthly “Traffic Volume Trends.”
When auto accident claims go down, auto insurance companies can usually respond fairly quickly. To adjust premiums, they must file new auto insurance rates with every state in which they operate. They can file new auto insurance rates any time they want to respond to market conditions, and many states offer a “file and use” system, where auto insurance companies can file








