Gas Prices Haven’t Slowed Holiday Getaway Plans
Average gasoline prices statewide are nearly $2 a gallon, and the Los Angeles region has once again been dubbed the nation’s hub of traffic congestion.
So, what’s a good Southern Californian to do?
Plan a road trip.
Despite spiraling prices and gloomy economic forecasts, a survey by the Automobile Club of Southern California finds that Southern Californians are expected to hit the roads this Memorial Day weekend in greater numbers than last year.
A separate nationwide survey by the Associated Press this week found three in 10 Americans saying that the rise in gasoline prices has caused them to cancel weekend trips, cut back their plans or change their mode of transportation. But the Auto Club surveys, both here and nationally, suggest that those cutbacks are not likely to affect the always congested holiday weekend.
Across Southern California, many motorists have changed their daily driving habits since gasoline prices hit the $2 mark in April.
Ridership on Los Angeles County’s buses and rail lines has increased slightly. At the same time, calls to a regional ride-share program have shot up nearly 45%.
“Maybe we are hitting a point where people are finally sick of this,” said Jill Smolinski, spokeswoman for Southern California Rideshare.
Motorists say they also are cutting back on quick local trips whenever possible.
Edwin Hendy, a professional bodyguard from Los Angeles, said he is carpooling with friends to the Magic Mountain amusement park in Santa Clarita this weekend instead of taking a separate car.
“I don’t drive unless I have to,” he said as he pumped $30 worth of gas into his Acura at a Shell station on Figueroa Boulevard near USC. “Things are just too expensive.”
Armando Castillos of Oxnard said the high gasoline prices kept him from a long-planned trip to a resort lake near San Luis Obispo.
He said he is frustrated by the added expense of paying nearly $60 to fill the tank in his Ford F150 truck and angry “at the whole conspiracy.”
Other drivers, like Tim Crist, 40, of Canoga Park say they must simply grin and bear it.
“I don’t like the prices, but I don’t have a choice,” he said as he filled up his 1996 Dodge Caravan at an AM/PM in Chatsworth. “I have to go to work, and I have to take my kids to school.”
Because of the higher prices, Chong Rake of Fountain Valley said she has permanently parked her family’s gas-guzzling van and now shops around for the lowest gasoline prices for her Ford Taurus.
“This is ridiculous,” she said. “How are we suppose to survive if it goes up to $3 a gallon?”
Chances are, that is not going to happen, many oil industry experts say. The average gasoline price in Southern California increased 40 cents per gallon since mid-February. Industry experts expect prices to drop by midsummer.
“Right now in California we’re full of gasoline” because the state’s refineries have been turning crude oil into gasoline at full tilt, said Will Woods, executive director of the Automotive Trade Organizations of California, a Tustin-based trade group that represents gasoline dealers. “Next week we could well see some price reductions” at the pump as a result, he said.
In the meantime, consumer experts and others said the high prices have not changed many Southern California travel plans because the additional 40 cents per gallon will only add about $10 to the cost of a 500-mile road trip.
“In a relative sense, it does not add a huge amount of additional costs,” said USC professor David Stewart, an expert on consumer behavior.
Motorists Plan Long Road Trips
Southern California motorists also plan on driving farther this weekend.
According to the Auto Club survey, this weekend’s five most popular vacation spots are San Diego, the Central Coast, Las Vegas, Colorado River resorts and San Francisco. Last year’s top five destinations were a bit closer to home: Las Vegas, San Diego, Palm Springs, Santa Barbara and Anaheim.
Belen Villagrana, a social worker from Los Angeles, said high gasoline prices made her briefly consider canceling a Memorial Day camping trip with her boyfriend to Lake Lopez in San Luis Obispo County, about 185 miles from Los Angeles.
“It entered my mind, but then I said, no, let’s go,” she said, clutching a few road maps from the Los Angeles headquarters of the Southern California Auto Club.
Some Southern Californians, however, have scuttled their vacation plans because of gasoline prices.
Allen Kramer, 58, of Northridge, canceled a family trip to Las Vegas because of the price increases. He said his family is not going any farther than Simi Valley this year.
“The [oil] companies are taking advantage of us by driving up the prices just before driving season begins,” he said as he filled up his Ford Explorer at an AM/PM in Chatsworth. “I want President Bush to do something.”
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority attributes record-high ridership numbers on its buses and rail lines to gasoline prices. But the increases are not huge. Bus ridership was up 2% from March to April while the Red Line subway had a 5% increase in riders in the same period.
“If they can save time and money, more people will use public transportation,” said MTA spokesman Marc Littman.
Mikey Culross, a graphic designer from Highland Park, said the high prices recently made him park his Volvo and take the bus to his job in downtown Los Angeles.
“It doesn’t take that long and it’s cheaper than a gallon of gas,” he said.
The higher transit ridership could be attributed to Southern Californian’s notoriously bad traffic. The Texas Transportation Institute recently ranked the Los Angeles-Orange County area as the nation’s most traffic-choked region, for the 16th year in a row.
On the other hand, neither traffic nor higher prices at the pump have hurt sales of the ubiquitous SUV gas hogs, according to some Southern California auto dealerships.
“They are still buying them, Suburbans and Tahoes,” said Rob Lambert, the sales manager at Courtesy Chevrolet, in Thousand Oaks.
Lambert said new car buyers in the last few months have asked about the gas mileage of the big Suburbans and full-size cars. “But they are still buying the vehicles,” he added.
Kyle Blatchley, sales manager at Downey Ford, agreed. “Everybody’s barking about the price [of gas], but I haven’t seen people say I need to look at a more economical car.”
Why?
Larry Goldstein, a spokesman for the Petroleum Industry Research Foundation in New York, said car buyers know that gas prices tend to fluctuate.
“People don’t make long-term decisions on temporary spikes,” he said.
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Times staff writers Timothy Hughes, Thuy-Doan Le, James F. Peltz and David Pierson contributed to this story.
(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)
Gas Prices Riding High
Nationwide trips during Memorial Day weekend
in millions
Note: A trip is defined as leisure travel of 100 miles or more from home per person, anytime during the weekend.
