NEW YORK – Before Angie and Donald Roberts get into their car to travel to the beach, they go online to determine where gasoline prices are lowest along their route.
Jamie Hampton and her fiance, Adrian Ortiz, like to get away by driving their Volkswagen van to a campground and leaving it parked while they bike nearby nature trails. They’re in shape to do it because they bike almost daily to work.
The soaring price of gasoline is leading many Americans to adopt new strategies to economize on fuel, especially during the summer holiday driving season that’s about to begin.
The nationwide average price for gasoline has surged to a record $3.07 per gallon, according to the latest Lundberg Survey, surpassing the old mark of $3.03 set in August. Some experts fear that tight domestic refining capacity and higher international demand could boost the average to an unheard-of $3.50 this summer.
Kateri Callahan, president of the nonprofit Alliance to Save Energy in Washington, D.C., said that when gas prices rise, there are basically three strategies for consumers – drive smarter, keep the car in good working order and drive less.
“The trend in prices is up, not down,” Callahan said. “That doesn’t mean people shouldn’t drive at all, but it wouldn’t hurt to hope for the best but be prepared for the worst.”
The Roberts’ idea of a relaxing vacation is a trip to Ocean City, Md., a beach community about a three-hour drive from their of Columbia, Pa., home.
“It’s very beautiful down there, very peaceful, and people are friendly,” said Angie Roberts, who works as a shift manager at a McDonald’s restaurant. And, she added, “We don’t have that far to go to get there.”
Still, she said, with gas prices rising, “we always check the computer and monitor where gas is up and where it’s low” to hold down costs.
Jamie Hampton, a senior account executive at a public relations firm, said she moved to San Diego for the warm weather and initially hoped to get along without a car for just a year while she got her budget in order. That was about 31/2 years ago.
Now she bikes the 15-mile round trip to and from work most days. Meanwhile, Ortiz, who sells ads for the Chula Vista Star-News newspaper, often leaves his car at the office for daytime use and bikes home. That, he says, cuts his usual $90-a-week gas bill in half.
“I know that not everybody can commute by bike,” Hampton said. “Sometimes it’s too far, sometimes it’s not feasible because there are kids.”
Still, she says, people do have alternatives such as carpooling and walking to both cut down on fuel use or increase the exercise they’re getting.
“Doing it even one day a week is better than not doing it at all,” she said.
The U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. Environmental Agency maintain a Web site, www.fueleconomy.gov, that provides tips drivers can use to improve gas mileage and has links to sites that track gasoline prices on a state-by-state basis. The AAA auto and travel association has a calculator on its site at www.fuelgaugereport.com that lets families determine the cost of gasoline for summer road trips.
Callahan said drivers “get the biggest bang for their buck” by driving more carefully.
“For example, if you’re driving aggressively on the highway – accelerating rapidly, speeding, braking too fast – you could be decreasing your fuel economy by a third,” she said.
Keeping a car idling for a long time can eat up gas unnecessarily, Callahan said. And excess weight in a car, say from golf clubs that have found a near-permanent home in the trunk, and also reduce fuel efficiency.
Another way to hold down gasoline costs is to keep the car well-maintained by getting regular tuneups, changing oil and air filters and checking tires for proper inflation, she said.
“You can get a 20 percent improvement in fuel economy by doing that,” she said.
Consumers can, of course, cut down on their driving by taking a bus, train or other public transit to work. They also can try to hold down the distances they drive regularly by being smarter about their routes, Callahan said.
“On Saturday, you don’t need to work out at the gym, return home and have coffee, head out to the grocery, return home, then go back out to pick up the dry-cleaning – especially when you’re essentially going back to the exact same strip mall for all of that,” she said.
If you bundle your errands on the weekend, you help the environment, save time and save money on gas, Callahan said.
Any money you save with make it easier to pay for that holiday, she added.
“When you’re driving on vacation, you know it will be a luxury you can afford,” she said.
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