Anyone who doesn’t live under a rock knows about the problem of rising gas prices. Gasoline has established record-high prices per gallon throughout the nation, and some unfortunate states are being hit harder than others.
According to Gasbuddy.com, the state with the cheapest gas is Wyoming, while the most expensive gas is found in California. Other high-priced regions include New York, Michigan, and even West Virginia. The highest prices can be around $4.00, and gas in Connecticut typically is sold for around $3.90; however, in New Haven County, most prices are about ten cents less than the average.
The high price of gasoline has triggered talk about protests or gas boycotting. On YouTube, several videos have even been posted encouraging others to boycott the purchase of gas on certain days in May, or throughout the entire month of June. Americans have also stopped buying certain kinds of cars. MSNBC reports that cars such as SUVs and trucks are no longer selling well for any car manufacturer. Overall sales at General Motors have fallen by eleven percent, while sales of most Fords are down by seven percent. However; gas-efficient vehicles are seeing a sharp incline in customer desirability. For example, hybrids such as the Ford Escape or the Mercury Mariner have experienced a 68% increase in sales.
Many people, says The New York Times, have also turned to public transportation as a way of saving money. Subways and buses—most notably in the South, where driving is more common than taking the Metro—have seen a large increase in passengers. Most big cities have seen up to a ten percent increase in the use of buses and subways, but transportation companies such as Sound Transit, based in Pudget Sound, Washington, claim to have experienced an almost thirty percent gain.
In Charlotte, North Carolina, trips taken on public transportation are up by an astounding 34% since last February. However, despite increased revenue from this new influx of passengers, many transportation services are finding it difficult to keep up with growing demand, since they also need to purchase gas and simply do not have enough money.
Many Choate day students have responded to the increased gas prices by carpooling. “[The carpool] is immensely helpful,” says Choate parent Amy Kilkenny. “We make a sixty-mile round trip, and with the price of gasoline going up, the carpool is very beneficial.”
Unfortunately, even measures such as these are not powerful enough to erase the impact of higher gas prices. Students and teachers are still forced to make driving decisions based upon how much money they have to spend on gasoline. “If I have a late night commitment, it makes me take a second guess as to whether I should drive home and back beforehand,” says Nathaniel Moore ’08. “Because if I go to get gas and I only have five bucks… that’s just not going to get me very far.”
Despite strategies to save money and talk of protest by many consumers, the federal Energy Information Administration predicted in a recent report that gas prices nationwide will average at $3.54 a gallon but will probably go above $4 a gallon.
Students are one of the demographics hit by rising gas prices. Contributed photo
