Skyrocketing gasoline prices force changes
More Americans are taking mass transit, working from home and curtailing vacation plans to cope.
The average cost of gasoline in California, climbing 37% in four months, reached a record $4.242 a gallon Monday and helped drive the national average to the brink of $4, the Energy Department said.
Pump prices in the state were the country's most expensive, according to the department's weekly survey of filling stations, and California endured the biggest increase of the last seven days -- 14.3 cents for a gallon of self-serve regular, after a nearly 15-cent jump the previous week.
Nationally, the average was a record $3.976 a gallon, up 4 cents from a week earlier and 82 cents from this time last year.
"The first thing I do when I get my paycheck is fill up on gas, because I have to take care of that immediately," said Christina Martinez, who lives in Whittier and works at retailer Fred Segal in West Hollywood. She spends about $80 a week on gasoline. "It's frustrating that even during election season I'm only thinking of politics in terms of who will get me lower gas prices."
Some experts attributed the increases in California to refinery problems. In addition, the state's refiners are making more diesel and aviation fuel -- reducing gasoline production -- to cash in on those more lucrative products. Diesel climbed above $5 a gallon for the first time last week in California.
The exploding costs are forcing serious changes. A record number of Americans are leaving their car keys at home, the American Public Transportation Assn. said Monday. Mass transit use was up nationally by 3.3% in the first quarter of 2008, building on 2007, when mass transit use nationwide reached a 50-year high, the Washington-based group said.
That trend was being mirrored locally. Metro Rail ridership rose nearly 4.5% in April compared with the same month in 2007, said Marc Littman, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Monthly bus boardings, which had been hit hard by a price increase last summer, have climbed ahead of last year's pace.
"I keep a very steady foot on the accelerator, and I just don't go out unless I have a purpose. Basically I'm going to stay home more," said Alfred Diaz, a retired aerospace worker in San Dimas. "I feel that we are getting royally taken for a ride, taken to the cleaners."
- Calif. to See Gas Prices Rise Again Mar 08, 2002
- Suspicion at the Gas Pump Mar 15, 2003
- Market Price for Gasoline Eases Again Jun 01, 2001
