American eased up on the gas last year

Americans cut back their use of gasoline by about 2 billion gallons and their driving by 25 billion miles in 1979, an unprecedented saving in a time free of war, depression, or an Arab oil embargo, the highway Users Federation says. Analysts for the federation, a nonprofit group promoting safety and highway efficiency, estimated that Americans used 1.6 percent less gasoline last year than in 1975, when motorists drove a record 1,550 billion miles.