Gas prices changing how local people live

Mike Davis isn't giving potential plumbing customers free estimates any more. Bob Normand has cut his cruising speed back from 75 miles an hour to 60. Irene Hagerty is doing her morning walk in the parking lot at nearby Falmouth Elementary School instead of driving six miles to walk at Spotsylvania Mall.

"We try to work with what we have," she said.

The high cost of gasoline has changed the way people around here are living their lives.

Gasoline prices spiked last week at $3.27 a gallon, a 76 percent increase over the same period last year. This week they're hovering between $3.19 and $3.09 in the Fredericksburg area, with a few bargain places offering fuel at $2.99 a gallon.

The damage wrought by Hurricane Katrina to oil wells and refineries in the Gulf of Mexico is blamed for the rise past the $3 mark, but even before the hurricane, gasoline prices were nipping consumers' pocketbooks. The last weekend in August, the price of a gallon of gasoline was around $2.60, up from $1.78 at the beginning of the year.

Davis, who owns Davis Plumbing & Heating Inc. in Falmouth, said he is now charging $20 to come out and give an estimate, something he used to do free.

"When gas prices started jacking up, we stopped. A lot of customers don't want to pay a surcharge. But if you spend $15 or $20 on gas and don't even get the job "

He tells potential customers if he gets the job he'll deduct the estimate charge from the total bill.

Davis also skipped his annual vacation in Myrtle Beach this year because of the cost of gasoline.

Another man said he had given up his trips to the casinos in Charles Town, W.Va. He used to budget $20 for the trip; when he lost that, he came home.

"Now it costs more than $20 to get there," he said.

Normand had stopped at the Virginia Welcome Center on Interstate 95, nearly halfway through his 1,500-mile trip back home to Florida from a summer spent in New Hampshire.

Gasoline was selling for $2.20 a gallon when he went north at the beginning of the summer. Now, he's finding it around $3.20.

He said that during the first 200 mile of his trip home he'd been driving at 55 mph, but that was on less-crowded roads.

1 2 3 Next Page

The U.S. Department of Energy and the Alliance to Save Energy Powerful $avings campaign offer these vehicle maintenance and driving tips to help consumers get better mileage and reduce gasoline expenses (monetary savings calculated by DOE based on gas at $2.20 a gallon):

Basic maintenance pays off

Keep your car properly tuned up to improve gas mileage by about 4 percent and save about 9 cents per gallon; replacing a faulty oxygen sensor can improve mileage by as much as 40 percent, to save up to 88 cents a gallon.

Keep air filters clean to improve mileage by as much as 10 percent and save up to 22 cents a gallon. Replacing clogged or dirty air filters also keeps impurities from damaging the inside of your engine.

Keep tires properly inflated to improve gas mileage by as much as 3 percent and save up to 7 cents per gallon. This also extends tire life and ensures tire safety.

Use the manufacturer's recommended grade of motor oil to improve your gas mileage by another 1-2 percent, saving 2 to 4 cents per gallon. Look for "Energy Conserving" on the API performance symbol to ensure friction-reducing additives.

On the road

Curtail aggressive driving. Speeding, rapid acceleration and braking cut mileage up to 33 percent at highway speeds and 5 percent in town, wasting from 11 to 73 cents per gallon. Nix jack-rabbit starts in favor of slow acceleration from a dead stop.

Obey the speed limit. Speeding cuts fuel economy 7 percent to 23 percent, as gas mileage decreases rapidly above 60 mph. Each 5 mph you drive over 60 is like paying an extra 15 cents per gallon.

If available, use your vehicle's overdrive gear when appropriate to reduce engine speed, save gas, and decrease engine wear.

Use cruise control to help cut fuel consumption by maintaining a steady speed during highway driving.

Pack lightly when traveling, and avoid carrying items on your vehicle's roof. An extra 100 pounds in the trunk cuts a typical car's fuel economy 1-2 percent.

Avoid idling, which gets 0 mpg. Cars with larger engines typically waste even more gas at idling than cars with smaller engines.

Carpool and use public transportation whenever possible. Check the American Public Transportation Association's Web site for local public transit information.

Combine your errands into one trip and plan your routes carefully to drive fewer miles and use less fuel. Also, several short trips taken from a cold start can use twice as much fuel as a longer, multipurpose trip covering the same distance when the engine is warm.

Other gasoline & money-saving options

If your employer permits, consider telecommuting or staggering your work hours to avoid sitting in traffic and wasting gas during peak rush hours.

If you own more than one vehicle, drive the one that gets better gas mileage whenever possible. If you drive 15,000 miles a year, you can save $550 a year by driving a car that gets 30 mpg rather than 20 mpg. That's $2,200 extra in fuel costs in just four years!

Protect your health and your pocketbook by walking--or biking--to your destination whenever possible.

Source: The Alliance to Save Energy Web site, ase.org

Date published: 9/9/2005

1. Be respectful. No personal attacks.
2. Please avoid offensive, vulgar, abusive, hateful or defamatory language.
3. Read and follow THE RULES.
4. We will block violaters and ban repeat offenders.

Breaking News - click here to have the latest delivered to your email box or cell phone