Just in time for the summer vacation season: $4 gas.
The average price for a gallon of regular gasoline hit a record $3.83 Thursday, according to AAA Mid-Atlantic, but many energy analysts expect the cost to blow past $4 in the next month.
“The price rise is not over, and the really sharp rises are probably in front of us,” said Larry Chorn, chief economist for energy research company Platts. “We probably won’t see big jumps until the second half of June. It’s my forecast that we will hit $4 a gallon average nationally, and of course some locations will be much higher.”
Drivers who own big cars or commute long distances are feeling pinched, with some local stations already charging more than $4 a gallon for regular.
“I spend $150 on gas now,” said Maria Contreras, who was filling up her Mistubishi Endeavor with $3.94 premium gas at a cash-only Georgetown station Thursday afternoon. “I want to buy a smaller car.”
Contreras, who cleans houses, said she can’t take public transportation to work from her Silver Spring home because she travels to several neighborhoods each day. She would sell her Endeavor, but she doesn’t think there’s a market for a gas guzzler right now.
“I could put it in the garage and buy a smaller one, and maybe in the future gas prices will be lower,” she said.
Wendy Henning, who carpools to Foggy Bottom from her Glover Park home, said gas prices aren’t stopping her from traveling to the Shenandoah Valley for the Memorial Day weekend.
Slightly fewer Washington-area residents will travel over Memorial Day weekend this year than last year, AAA Mid-Atlantic forecast Wednesday.
It’s the first time the travel forecast has dropped since 2002, when the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks kept many at home.
But Henning has changed her shopping habits.
“I order a lot more online rather than driving to the suburbs,” she said as she filled up her Subaru Outback. “When I think of what I have to pay in gas, it’s worthwhile paying the shipping.”
As gas prices climb past the rate of affordability for long-distance commuters, Metro is bracing for the possibility that hordes of drivers will switch to public transit, overwhelming the already packed system. Planners are developing contingency plans that could include renting more buses or encouraging more slug lines.
Rail ridership has grown every month this year over the same months last year, despite January fare increases that raised the price of trips by between 30 and 60 cents each way.
More commuters also are ditching their cars for Virginia Railway Express, which reported 1,500 more daily riders in April than a year earlier.
Hiram Augustt, who just graduated from a North Carolina university, said he is going to take Metro to his new job in the District.
It already costs him $75 to fill up his Infiniti M45, he said at a
D.C. Exxon station that was charging $4.16 per gallon for premium gas.
“I think if gas got to the $5 a gallon mark, I’d just have to stop driving it completely,” he said. “I’d let it sit.”
