Rural areas being hit harder by high gas prices
June 9th, 2008 at 12:28pm Thomas V. Bona
Even though Illinois was one of the first states to see $4 a gallon gasoline, and now ranks eighth in the nation, we don’t have it as bad as a lot of places, according to a survey by the Oil Price Information Network and a related story in the New York Times.
The average American is spending 4 percent of his or her take home pay on gasoline. According to this map, we here in northern Illinois are paying between 3 and 5 percent. Some parts of the Chicago suburbs are paying only 2 to 3 percent. Meanwhile, rural parts of the South and upper Midwest are paying a double-digit percentage of their paychecks. Obviously, the rise in gas prices has hurt everyone to some extent - and the poorer folks anywhere are getting particularly squeezed - but it puts things in perspective.
I’m trying to get regional data from OPIS for our own story this week. What are readers experiencing?
Entry Filed under: Uncategorized
1 Comment Add your own
1. Liz | June 9th, 2008 at 12:59 pm
Because I commute daily to Crystal Lake, and have 2 kids in activities, I’m spending over $500/month in gasoline. That’s far higher than the average 4% of take home pay mentioned here - it’s closer to 20%. Thankfully we only have one car and one commute. In my Ford focus, getting an average of 27 mpg (2003 model year), I fill up 3 times per week. We have greatly cut back on our excessive driving around, and have consolidated many of our errands into one trip. I’m always surprised to see the number of people speeding as much as they do. I’ve always been told that one of the easiest ways to gain better fuel mileage is drive 55. When I do that, I’m nearly always the slowest person on the road, causing much grief for drivers behind me. Maybe the high fuel costs don’t affect them as much as they do me, but I’ll continue driving 55 mph or less.
Leave a Comment
Some HTML allowed:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong>
Trackback this post | Subscribe to the comments via RSS Feed