For the first time since May, Houstonians are paying less than $4 for a gallon of regular gasoline.

But in the so-called oil capital, where — until February — the average price of gas hadn’t gone north of $3 a gallon for roughly eight years, a recent 80-cent dip isn’t enough for many to return to their normal driving patterns, upending a long-held belief that demand for gasoline doesn’t change with its price. The longer they hold out, the more likely they’ll help tamp down demand for fuel, further cutting the price.

Demand for gasoline is 8 percent less than at the same time last year, according to the Energy Department. That’s helped drive down the price of gas from its peak of $4.64 a month ago. The price for a gallon fell by another 16 cents last week to an average of $3.86 per gallon in Houston, according to fuel-price tracking service GasBuddy.

Despite the record-high prices, experts say, history has shown that in the short term, drivers still need to get where they’re going. Only in the long term, they said, will high gasoline prices push drivers to make changes, such as buying more fuel-efficient cars.

But the pandemic and more flexibility for employees to work from home may have changed the dynamic.

“It seems like employers are repurposing their COVID flexibility to help their employees save gas money,” said Jim Krane, energy fellow at Rice University. “If you have enough people working at home for one more day per week, because Americans commute longer distances than just about anybody in the world — I mean, we’re famous for our long lonely commutes — so this would affect us probably a lot more than it would other parts of the world.”