To drive or not to drive? This Memorial Day weekend (Memorial Day)With gas prices rising steadily, the question couldn’t be more timely for many Americans, who are also seeing new cases of COVID-19 across the country.
For Marvin Harper, of Phoenix, Arizona, his family’s travel plans this weekend are costing him too much. His two college sons each participate in a soccer tournament in Southern California and Colorado respectively.
He and his daughter will fly to Denver instead of driving, while the wife and son will travel by road in their vehicle.
“My mother-in-law is going with my wife and son to split the cost, because it’s too much for our family,” Harper said as he filled his truck at a gas station in Phoenix. “We can’t afford to drive…gas prices are killing us.”
For some, that is exactly what has made them change their plans for the holiday and now they will spend it in their yards to limit the damage to the pocketbook.
Laura Dena and her children would normally travel to Southern California these days to escape the sweltering Arizona heat, but this year they’re staying home because filling up their truck costs them at least $100.
“It’s really frustrating,” Dena said as she waited in line in 90-degree heat at a Phoenix gas station. “It’s annoying but there’s not much we can do, we have to pay the price.”
The average price of gasoline in the US on Thursday was $1.21 per liter, according to figures from the American Automobile Association (AAA). In California, it reached 6 dollars per gallon (4 liters). This happens, among other factors, because many countries are not buying Russian oil since the invasion of Ukraine.
But it’s not just a problem for Americans. In the entire European Union, 27 countries, gasoline costs 40% more than a year ago, at the equivalent of 2.21 dollars per liter.
The rise in prices coincides in the US with a resurgence of COVID-19 that has taken the number of infections to numbers not seen since February, but it is feared that there are more because the statistics do not include tests done at home and asymptomatic infections.
Even so, two and a half years of the pandemic drive many to take to the roads and fly, despite the resurgence. AAA estimates that 39.2 million people in the United States will travel 50 miles or more from their homes on Memorial Day weekend.
Those projections, which include travel by car, plane and other means of transportation such as trains or cruises, are 8.3% more than in 2021, and will bring the figure closer to the volume of 2017, although still below 2019, the previous year. to the pandemic.
About 88% of those 39.2 million commuters are expected to use the highways over the weekend, despite the price of gasoline, AAA spokesman Andrew Gross said.
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