Nationwide U.S. gas prices recently broke the record nationwide average gas price of about $3.07 per gallon. Despite breaking the record gas prices have kept on climbing. The chart on the right is a graph from the Fuel Gauge Report. It shows prices soaring right past the old record. Today gas prices are already ten cents above the old record at a nationwide average price of $3.18.
Despite the all-time high gas prices consumers are not letting up on driving primarily because they have little choice. Commuters have not choice but to endure the painful pump prices because they have to get to and from work. Gas prices will likely break the $4 mark in some cities.
And brace yourself: experts say with gas already closing in on $4 a gallon in Chicago and San Francisco ahead of the peak summer driving season, higher prices could be in the cards.
Most Americans are locked into their driving habits and can do little to alter their fuel-buying patterns when prices rise, experts say. For example, the number of workers with commutes lasting longer than 60 minutes grew by almost 50 percent between 1990 and 2000, according to Census Bureau data.
"I drive 55 miles each way to work every day," Sandy Colden, of Medford, N.J., said one recent morning while loading groceries into her Honda Pilot SUV. "So I really don't have a choice, unfortunately."
A Reuters article says today's high gas prices have even matched the "inflation-adjusted peak reached in the early 1980s during the Iran-Iraq war."
