Creeping gas prices back, in time for summer

Published 10:43 pm Sunday, May 24, 2009

Drivers are getting the creeps.

It’s a condition that comes on every spring, but it’s especially creepy this year.

It’s caused by gas prices slowly, stealthily crawling up our backs like a flock of blood-sucking mosquitoes.

After last summer’s all-out attack of the wild willies, caused by gas prices soaring past $4 per gallon, we got some relief over the winter. Average prices statewide for regular bottomed out in Washington state at about $1.75 on Dec. 1.

Now they’re back up to $2.56 a gallon in the Puget Sound region, according to AAA Washington.

If you read about the reasons, you see the usual array of excuses: refinery fires, rebels bombing pipelines in Africa, blah blah blah. What really does it, though, is springtime itself, said Cassie Devaney, a spokeswoman for AAA.

“It’s a seasonal trend that we see every year,” she said.

In other words, the oil sellers are taking advantage of higher demand.

People are calling AAA, Devaney said, wondering if prices will go as high as they did last year. That’s not likely to happen, she said, since last year’s spike was caused by a confluence of factors driven largely by speculators in oil futures.

An oddity of this year’s trend is that diesel prices in many cases have dropped below those of other fuel. That’s because the worldwide economic downturn and a reduced demand for goods “is equating into a decline in demand for diesel to transport those goods,” Devaney said.

Park-and-ride lots

Gale Kennedy of Everett asks: If a person is making or breaking a carpool at a park-and-ride lot, can they then get back onto the freeway as a single driver or do they have to go out of the park-and-ride and drive around to the nearest onramp? In particular I’m inquiring about the new 112th Street park-and-ride. Most of the other park-and-rides have onramps near the freeway, but at 112th you have to drive around to Everett Mall or to 19th Avenue.

State trooper Keith Leary responds: As it stands now a single occupant could face an infraction in a carpool lane even after dropping a person off at the park-and-ride if they were to enter the freeway as a single occupant. The 112th Street park-and-ride is the only one in the median of I-5 in Snohomish County that is not close to a general purpose exit-entrance ramp. Engineers with the state Department of Transportation may be able to answer design questions regarding this park-and-ride or any future improvements or changes.

New speed limit sign

Mike Beauchamp of Camano Island asks: During this past year there was construction on the intersection of Highway 532 and Old Highway 99, east of Stanwood near I-5. Beforehand, there was a 40 mph speed zone sign just west of 99 on eastbound 532. However, this sign was removed during construction and was never replaced. There is a yellow caution sign alerting of a speed zone change of 40 mph ahead, but the white 40 mph sign is missing. I hope that you can get this sign put up before there is an accident at this busy intersection.

Dave Chesson, spokesman for the state Department of Transportation, responds: We are moving the 55-to-40 mph speed limit boundary on eastbound Highway 532 about 1/4 mile west of its current location, to include the E. Sunday Lake Road intersection. A new “Speed Limit 40” sign has been ordered and should be up by the end of this week.

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