(Host) If you drive a car, chances are you’re acutely aware of gas prices these days.
In Vermont, the average is $3.85 a gallon. And while that’s lower than the price a month ago, it’s higher than other nearby states, and higher than the national average.
In a poll of people living in northern New England, 35 percent said gas prices were affecting their decisions about summer trips.
VPR’s Samantha Fields talked to Vermonters about how the price of gas is impacting their wallets – and their driving habits.
(Charlie at the Mobil station: "it’s $3.84. that’s the cheapest I’ve seen it.)
(Fields) Charlie Lafayette is getting gas. He’s at a Mobil station on Route 15 in Colchester.
He drives a big white Chevy cargo van, with a couple of ladders strapped to the top.
(Charlie) On this I get about 18 on the highway. Probably maybe 15 in the city.
(Fields) It’s his work car – he does roofing and home improvements. And he drives a lot. Which means he also pays a lot of attention to gas prices.
(Charlie Lafayette) I’ll drive by 2, 3 gas stations just to save 2 cents on the gallon because I’m putting in two to three hundred dollars in gas a week.
(Fields) There’s not much he can do about that – it’s a necessary expense in his line of work. But he does what he can, when he can, to save some money.
(Charlie) I’ll take route 7 instead of hopping on the interstate, when I got a load on it. It takes a little longer to get there, but it saves you a little bit at the gas pumps.
(Fields) Lafayette has also started charging clients a bit extra for each job to defray the cost of gas.
And he bought a cheap car, to drive between jobs, so he could avoid driving the van everywhere.
(Charlie) It was a good purchase. I got it really cheap, and the gas money I’ve saved actually paid for it a long time ago.
(Fields) And he often carpools.
Karin Ericson has noticed her clients are more interested in carpooling, too. She’s a real estate agent in Chittenden County. She’s found that her clients these days want to ride along with her in her car when she’s showing them homes.
(Karin Ericson) I was thinking, I think they want to not have two cars going for gas, why not just have one car? And I’m happy to have it be mine. And I think they’re happy to have it be mine! So yeah, I’ve noticed that much more recently.
(Fields) Aside from the increase in carpooling, Ericson says that prospective homebuyers don’t seem quite as spooked by high gas prices now as they did in 2008.
During that spike, she noticed more people were interested in buying homes closer to city centers.
At the time, she and her husband did the same thing: they moved from Grand Isle to Burlington.
(Karin) For me, the oil and the gas were a big factor. … When you start saying to yourself that $500 a month is going to go to heating oil and X is going to go towards gas… AND it’s a huge house and a long commute and a lot of lawn to mow… then all those pieces fit together. And we decided that we needed to look at something else.
(Fields) Ericson says she notices fluctuations in gas prices, but that they don’t affect her driving habits. She has to drive for work, and she can write gas off as a business expense.
But for Kathy Gagnon, the price of gas is having a noticeable impact on certain choices she makes.
Gagnon lives in New Haven, and commutes more than 80 miles a day, to Essex Junction or St. Albans.
(Kathy Gagnon) When I started this job in June of 2009, gas was about $2.70 a gallon.
(Fields) Now, it’s just under $4 a gallon.
(Kathy) I think the difference in my gas money for the month is about $100 a month. And that’s significant.
(Kathy) $100 matters. I could be doing something way more fun than putting it in my tank.
(Fields) Such as visiting her best friend on Cape Cod – which she doesn’t do nearly as often now that gas prices are so high.
She also thinks twice now before going into Middlebury – a 20 mile roundtrip from her home.
(Kathy) When gas prices are this high, I think you plan ahead. When I make a trip into Middlebury, I do as many things as possible in that single trip.
(Fields) Gagnon says she started really noticing a difference when it cost her more than $50 bucks to fill her tank.
When she’s filling up these days, she can’t help but stare as the numbers run higher and higher:
(Kathy at the pump, filling up)
(Kathy) I watch the price, I watch each time it goes up a $10 point. So now it’s in the 20s….
(Sounds of her filling up)
(Kathy) I think have a little less than a quarter of a tank right now. I’m gonna guess… $43 dollars…
(Sound of pump stopping)
(Kathy) $42.67. Not bad
(Fields) You must do this a lot.
(Kathy) laughs. I do, I do.
(Fields) Like Gagnon, Heather Kelman is acutely aware of how much money she’s putting in her tank.
(Heather) It was around $27 for me to fill my tank last summer, and now it’s probably around 42, 43 or 44 dollars.
(Heather) It really makes me start to think about when and how I’m taking out my car. There’s more intention now…
(Fields) And she’s not expecting gas prices to change significantly anytime soon. She thinks this is "the new normal."
So Kelman is trying to look on the bright side.
(Heather) I think that this is actually a good thing. It’s gonna make us all maybe… I’ll start to think about a new car. A smaller car. Maybe a hybrid.
(Fields) Charlie Lafayette and Kathy Gagnon are thinking about hybrids, too. Though for them, a new car is not something they can run out and buy right away. So in the meantime, they’re keeping their eyes out for the cheapest gas they can find… and doing what they can to use a little less fuel.
For VPR News, I’m Samantha Fields.