The Rise of Gas Prices

Ready for your summer vacation? Are you planning a road trip? It’s that time of year of traveling and relaxation. Except there is one problem. Gas has become very expensive. Gas is up 26 percent this year to an average $3.88 a gallon. According to the most recent Lundberg Survey of approximately 2,500 U.S. gas stations, regular grade gasoline averaged $3.8800 at retail, up 11.53 cents over the past two weeks Rodney Williams, a student at Shaw University, states that gas has become an issue. “It cost almost $60.00 to fill up my gas tank,” Williams states. He also said that he is considering selling his car and getting another one for cheaper gas mileage. When gas prices rise everything else rises as well. The price of food and other daily purchases will also be affected because deliveries will become more expensive because of the gas prices. Betha Oethga, owner of African Artifacts, business is being effected by gas because of the increase. Oethga states that because of gas she have to increase the price of her clothing and jewelry.  “ Customer ask me why did my prices go up, I have to explain to them it’s because gas prices has went up,” she states. She also says that luckily she has found a way to price her merchandise without going up too high.                                                                           

 President Barack Obama has also weighed in on gas prices rising. Obama says one answer to high gasoline prices is to spend money developing renewable energy sources. He stated last week in his weekly radio and Internet address, "That's the key to helping families at the pump and reducing our dependence on foreign oil in the long term.” Lea Alston also said that the gas prices affected her store. All of her products are handmade. “I can tell there has been a slight increase in the products that I buy. It hasn't affected me to bad yet, but we will see how it will be in a few months,” she states.  

Unfortunately we all have to see if the gas prices will continue to rise or eventually decrease.People are also using more public transportation according The Transportation Research Record released a study of data through 2007, “Understanding Links Between Transit Ridership and Gasoline Prices: Evidence from the United States and Australia

As far as for the U.S The study’s findings include:

For every 10% increase in gas prices, U.S. transit demand has increased on average by 1.2%; demand for light rail rises by approximately 3%, compared with buses at only 0.4%.

In general, increased gas prices had a much larger effect on increasing demand for public transit for longer — rather than shorter-distance — trips.

As for the rest of the year we all have to wait and see if the gas prices will continue rise and if so how do we accommodate to it.

-AO