US driving down 3.5 pct in Oct from year ago-govt

U.S. motorists drove 9 billion miles (14.5 billion kilometers) or 3.5 percent less in October than they did a year earlier even as gasoline prices continued to fall, the Transportation Department said on Friday.

Last month's decline in miles driven was the largest drop of any October since 1971.

For the first 10 months of the year, highway travel was down 89.2 billion miles, or 3.5 percent, from the same year-ago period, the department said.

The average U.S. retail gasoline price has dropped from a record over $4 per gallon in July to $1.70, the cheapest price since February 2004, the EIA said on Monday.

"The fact that the trend persists even as gas prices are dropping confirms that America's travel habits are fundamentally changing," said Transportation Secretary Mary Peters in a statement.

Even with the cost of gasoline declining, the American Public Transportation Association said ridership on public transit was up 6.5 percent in the third quarter from the same period in 2007 — the largest quarterly ridership increase in 25 years.

The part of the country that saw the largest drop, of 5 percent, in highway travel in October was the eight states in the South Atlantic region that stretches from Delaware to Florida.

The states with biggest fall in highway travel included Montana's 8.4 percent, Utah's 7.4 percent, South Carolina's 6.7 percent and Arizona's 6 percent.

None of the 50 states had an increase in driving in October.