With gas prices on the constant surge upward, it seems adjustments are going to have to be made by everyone.
With the national average of unleaded gas hovering around $4.07 a gallon, students and other local business are taking notice.
John Denman, CEO of the Capital Area Transit System, has seriously noticed the impacts of rising gas prices.
“It’s beginning to really wreak havoc on our budget process,” Denman said. “Fuel is affecting us just like everybody else.”
Denman estimated that there has been a 20 percent increase in passenger attendance within the last few months. CATS bus driver Demetricus Fountain has also noticed the increase.
“We see some new faces here and there,” Fountain said, “If prices get to $5, I’m expecting to have a bus load.”
Fountain said the streets feel noticeably different.
“Traffic begins to slow down; there’s a bigger influx of actual people, but there are less vehicles on the street,” Fountain said.
Though the number of passengers has increased, Denman explained that passenger fares pay for only a small amount of the actual budget.
“We reported that at fuel costs today, we are probably looking at around a $700,000 shortfall,” Denman said, “If it continues to rise like they expect, [to $4.50 per gallon] we predict that we will be $1 million dollars in the hole by December.”
Denman said CATS buys about 8,000 gallons of diesel fuel each week for the buses.
Prices for diesel fuel have almost doubled in the past year. This week CATS payed $4.04 a gallon for diesel fuel.
In response to the burden of ever-increasing gas prices, students are realizing the best temporary solutions may be riding the bus or a bike.
Brittany Lewis, chemistry senior, said she rides the bus to school every day because of high gas prices. While many students rely on buses, others are depending on bicycles. Butler Murrell of The Bicycle Shop, said he has noticed a steady increase in business. Murrell estimated he has seen a 35 percent increase in business over the past few months.
“It’s obviously noticeable,” Murrell said, “Our increase is continuing. It will level off at some point, but I don’t anticipate it leveling off until December.”
While there appear to be no quick fixes in driving down the price of oil, some national leaders are looking for solutions. Crude oil prices have increased from $120 to almost $140 a barrel in just one week following an $11 increase over night on June 6.
President Bush asked Congress on Wednesday to permit oil drilling off the U.S. coasts to battle quickly rising oil prices.
Federal restrictions put in place for environmental reasons, however, will not allow this to happen without congressional approval.
“In the short run, the American economy will continue to rely largely on oil, and that means we need to increase supply here at home,” Bush told CNN.
Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil producer, is expected to boost its oil production by increasing output by 200,000 barrels a day through July.
Many economists do not expect this to make a large impact because the oil market largely ignored Saudi Arabia’s 300,000-barrel-a-day output increase in May.
—-Contact Tyler Harvey at [email protected]