"We've been through almost eight years" of rising gas prices, AAA spokesman Geoff Sundstrom said. "Any notion that this is a temporary thing has pretty well been erased."

Even automakers that have relied on big trucks for profits are moving in a new direction. Ford Motor Co. is changing from a truck to a car company in North America. General Motors Corp. is closing four factories that make pickups and sport-utility vehicles. It will open a plant to make four-cylinder engines for the Chevrolet Volt electric car and Chevrolet Cruze compact.

At least for a while, consumers may continue to see falling prices because oil markets continued their stunning collapse yesterday. Light, sweet crude for November delivery ended the day $8.89 lower at $77.70 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It was the lowest settlement price for a front-month crude contract since Sept. 10, 2007.

The reduction in driving was noted by AAA in December, when vehicle miles traveled began to slip. Regular gasoline had just risen above $3 a gallon in a month when prices usually fall.

By July, regular unleaded gasoline hit a record national average of $4.11 a gallon; demand was down 6 percent from May.

Still, for some Americans, the big car is too ingrained as a way of life to let go, said Kit Yarrow, a Golden Gate University psychologist who researches the effects of oil prices on consumer behavior.

"Driving is just so central to their lives, their feelings of freedom and so on, that they're going to do what they're going to do," she said.

But for many other drivers, that way of thinking has been abandoned. "People kind of understand now what their foot on the pedal means in terms of money," Yarrow said.

Bob Gomez, a Colorado state employee, has begun to car pool. Los Angeles artist Shahla Kareen gave up her 2007 BMW sedan for a 1978 Mercedes fueled with waste vegetable oil. She pays $1 a gallon. "I would spend $75 to $100 to fill up my tank per week," she said. "Now I spend maybe $20 a week."

There also have been broad changes across entire industries. Cruise lines have altered routes to save fuel. UPS Inc. and the U.S. Postal Service are turning to alternative-fuel vehicles. And airlines are shifting to more fuel-efficient planes.