Soaring gas prices putting pressure on drivers to cut back
BY FRANCINE KNOWLES Business Reporter/fknowles@suntimes.com April 11, 2011 9:07PM
Chicagoan Cynthia Booker pumps gas Monday at a BP station at 35th and King Drive. Booker, who says she’s riding her bike for short trips, joins other area motorists in seeking alternatives to expensive gas. | Keith Hale~Sun-Times
Updated: May 13, 2011 12:27AM
Painful prices at the pump are causing consumers here and across the country to shift their driving habits into low gear — or even park.
“I’m driving a lot less,” said 36-year old Bronzeville resident Shaun Beamon as he pumped gasoline into his Chevrolet Malibu at the BP station at 35th and King Drive Monday. There the price for a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline was $4.359.
“I’m only going where I need to go,” said South Side resident Joy James.
Dunbar Park resident Cynthia Booker said she has tarted to ride her bike for short trips and to use public transportation.
“I’m reconsidering picking people up unless they’re willing to contribute to the gas,” she added.
They’re not alone in opting to leave their cars parked more often. Gas sales have fallen for five straight weeks nationally, according to MasterCard SpendingPulse, which tracks credit card, cash and check spending at 140,000 service stations nationwide. Drivers bought about 3.6 percent less gasoline the week of April 1 compared to a year ago, it said.
Before the decline, demand for gasoline had been increasing for two months — a trend some analysts had expected to continue because the economic recovery is picking up.
“More people are going to work,” said John Gamel, director of gasoline research for MasterCard. “That means more people are driving, and they should be buying more gas.”
Instead, about 70 percent of the nation’s major gas-station chains report sales have fallen, according to a March survey by the Oil Price Information Service. More than half reported a drop of 3 percent or more — the sharpest since the summer of 2008, when gas prices set record highs.
But prices are going up faster than people are cutting back. Americans are paying roughly $340 million more per day to fill up than they did a year ago.
The average price of regular unleaded gas was $4.11 in Chicago Monday, up 16 cents a gallon from a week earlier and up nearly 40 cents a gallon from a month ago, according to AAA. But prices vary throughout the city, with $4.59 a gallon one of the highest prices in the city posted at GasBuddy.com, which collects prices by site from consumers. Some analysts have predicted $5 a gallon by Memorial Day.
Nationally, the average price is $3.77 a gallon, up 11 cents from a week ago and up 22 cents a gallon from a month earlier. Gas prices have shot up this year as unrest in North Africa and the Middle East rattled energy markets and increased global demand for crude oil squeezed supplies sending oil prices soaring.
Beamon says when he can, he travels to Hammond to buy gas, where it’s cheaper than in Chicago (averaging about $3.87 a gallon).
“If I can’t make it to Hammond, I have no other choice but to get it around where I stay,” he said.
His advice to other consumers, if the drive you’re considering making doesn’t pertain to business or family, “you just might want to sit still.”
That’s advice 22-year-old Will Brumfield of Morton Grove is already following.
“Whenever I’m not working, I try not to drive,” he said.
He’s strategic in his driving when running errands. “I try and plan everything . . . around to make sure that all the plans I have to say go to the grocery store or to the gym, I make sure I do both those things at the same time so I’m not making two trips,” he said.
Rochelle Green, 57, who is disabled and living on a fixed income, says the higher gas prices are squeezing her finances.
“It’s just ridiculous how the prices keep going up, and other things are going up too,” she said.
Her daughter who drove an SUV that was costing her $70 to fill up, opted to buy a smaller car that’s more fuel efficient. Another daughter plans to do the same.
It’s a trend that’s catching on. Sales of the Hyundai Sonata and Elantra soared 55 percent in March while sales of Chevy’s Suburban SUV dropped nearly 24 percent.
Contributing: AP
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