Gas prices have sky-rocketed over the past month, but it didn’t
stop Californians from getting out on the road for the last long
weekend of summer.
Approximately 4.8 million Californians traveled 50 miles or more
over the Labor Day Weekend, making it the highest traveled Labor
Day in nine years, said Cynthia Harris, spokesperson for the AAA of
Northern California.
Gas prices have sky-rocketed over the past month, but it didn’t stop Californians from getting out on the road for the last long weekend of summer.
Approximately 4.8 million Californians traveled 50 miles or more over the Labor Day Weekend, making it the highest traveled Labor Day in nine years, said Cynthia Harris, spokesperson for the AAA of Northern California.
The weekend saw an increase of 1.8 percent in travelers, with 79 percent of those people driving. Approximately 3.8 million people drove over the weekend, a 1.6 percent increase from last year, Harris said.
“Basically, this is the last weekend of summer and people decided to get on the road no matter what,” she said. “(High gas prices) is a way of life, so they’re going to go anyway.”
Gas prices had a regional average of $2.18 Tuesday, down 2 cents from $2.20 on Labor Day, Harris said.
“Gas prices have started to decrease,” she said. “Historically, they drop after the Labor Day Weekend.”
Prices rise because of the increased need for gas over the heavily traveled holiday, Harris said. Because summer is over and the oil companies are gearing up for their winter gas production, which is cheaper to produce, we should see an overall drop in prices, she said.
“It can be hard to say, though,” she said. “There could always be some unforeseen event in the Middle East that changes things.”
For many Hollister residents the formidable prices didn’t frighten them off the highways. Hollister resident Cheryl Ashton said the prices didn’t affect her Labor Day travel at all, but that she has noticed a drop in almost 10 cents since last week.
Julien Medina, a Hollister resident for 38 years, didn’t travel very far over the weekend, but still felt the sting of the high prices.
“I only went a short distance, but it still hurts,” he said, “I think (the prices) will start going down next week, well after the big holiday weekend.”
Bill Fitzgerald, a Truckee resident passing through Hollister on his way to San Luis Obispo, said he waited as long as possible to make the trip, hoping gas prices would decrease after the holiday weekend.
“I would have considered traveling over the weekend if gas prices weren’t so high,” Fitzgerald said. “I delayed this trip hoping they would go down.”
With all the motorists on the roadways, the California Highway Patrol for the Hollister-Gilroy area reported 23 accidents, nine less than last year, and 15 or 16 driving under the influence arrests, said CHP Officer Terry Mayes.
Other than one fatal accident Sunday night, most of the accidents were minor, Mayes said.
“It was a lot better than last year,” she said.
Statewide, the CHP reported that 31 people were killed in the 60 hours starting at 6 p.m. Friday and ending at 6 p.m. Monday. That number is down from last year’s 45 fatalities over the weekend. The CHP made 1,408 DUI arrests, an increase from 1,363 last year.
