There should be sufficient data available to the State departments of transportation to describe the impact of variations in fuel prices on traffic. I wonder what the correlation is, and how elastic the demand curve is. I suspect it’s not elastic, and that funds are being diverted from other pursuits in order to provide for fuel.
A couple of years ago I looked for what New York’s fuel taxes were. The Automobile Club of New York asserts that 70 cents per gallon are tax, and has a petition for the State to suspend or cap the sales tax on gasoline. When you look at this map of retail prices bear in mind that a substantial percentage of the price is tax.
The last time I was in West Virginia, I noticed that the price on the pump noted the base price per gallon and the amount of tax. I think this practice should be common in all localities.