Drivers shift routinesto conserve cash

Steven Pryor got a new job a few months ago. He started working at the registrar’s office at William Woods University in Fulton.

But his stroke of luck had its complications and he was forced to make a choice: commute 38 miles a day from his home in Columbia or move closer to avoid the heavy cost of fuel and reduce time spent on the road. Pryor plans to move.

“Every trip from Columbia to Fulton used to cost $6 for gas a day,” he said. “Now it’s costing more than $12 to travel two trips a day, five days a week.”

The month of May began with Columbia’s gas prices jumping from $2.50 per gallon of regular to a high of $2.77. Statewide, the price rose 24 cents from April, according to Missouri’s Department of Natural Resources Energy Center. But at an average of $2.671 per gallon, Columbians fared better than their coastal counterparts. Californians and Hawaiians have been digging deeper into their pockets than most other Americans, forking over as much as $3.42 a gallon over the past month. For Columbia, the relatively lower price is little consolation.

The highest Pryor has paid for gas was $2.75 a gallon. For now, he still has to make trips to Columbia twice a week to attend classes at William Woods’ Columbia facility. He decided he would rather endure the inconvenience of moving out than pay $60 a week for gas to commute daily. Today, he saves more than $30 a week.

“My job is an entry-level job, but if I’m making 30 to 40 grand a year after I get my degree, I probably won’t mind paying more for gas,” he said.

Besides moving closer to his workplace, Pryor is getting a topper, a canvas-like sheet to cover his gas-guzzling Mazda B3000 truck’s bed.

“They say it can raise gas mileage by 10 percent if I cover the bed up,” Pryor said.

Plan and click to save

Jeanne Beck, a 21-year-old Jefferson City resident majoring in international studies and education at MU, plans ahead and works around gas prices by deciding where to fill up before making trips.

“The gas prices in Jefferson City are about 6 cents higher (per gallon) than Columbia. So if I plan properly, I can pump my car before I leave for home,” said Beck, who returns home on weekends.

Sedalia resident Stanley Hausam is another driver who has it mapped out before going to the pump. Among other small adjustments, he tries to consolidate his grocery shopping to reduce trips to the mall.

The 45-year-old takes time to check Web sites like GasBuddy.com and its sister site, MissouriGasPrices.com, researching prices before filling his tank to make sure he gets the cheapest deal. Unlike official Web sites like AAA, the sites provide more detailed information about specific gas

stations in the area that you live in, Columbia included.

GasBuddy.com’s site traffic has doubled since mid-March, when prices started a steady rise, said Jason Toews, founder of the site. It has more than 1.2 million visitors nationally and relies entirely upon these visitors for information. Users contribute price information in their vicinity to the database, keeping it as up-to-date as possible. Prices are fed to the Web site by gas spotters like Hausam, who enters his findings “one or twice a week, or as often as I have time.”

On Monday, the site listed the Sinclair station along Fellows Place as selling the cheapest gas, at $2.67.

Some things you just can’t control

Clicking and researching might work for some, but for others, it’s unlikely to alter their commuting plans, especially if it’s in the name of love.

Stanley Lee, a 22-year-old civil engineer, travels at least twice a month from Branson, where he works, to Columbia to visit his girlfriend Joy Chen, a student atMU. Lee said the most he has paid so far for a gallon has been $2.99 - and that was only last week. He said he foresees prices continuing to increase and he has made a concerted effort to cut down on socializing in Branson to avoid emptying his fuel tank.

“But if I have to go to Columbia, it’s a different matter,” said Lee,

Living in separate cities means Chen only gets to see Lee when he comes up to Columbia and much of the relationship’s communication takes place over the phone. “I’ll kill him if he stops going to come because of gas prices,” said Chen jokingly.

The economics of fuel

Michael Davis, assistant professor of economics and finance at the University of Missouri-Rolla, said that although many will complain about the rocketing cost of gas, consumers are not likely to make drastic changes. His theory is that gas prices are far from static and haven’t been in years, adding that demand for gas does not change at the same rate as price increases.

“Most (people) don’t adjust their plans in the short term. They may if prices continue to rise in the long term. Buying a more efficient type of car or moving to a new location are bigger decisions most (people) don’t make in the short term,” said Davis, whose research focuses on retail gas prices.

And although many have started carpooling in bigger cities, he said, “Perhaps in Boone County, where it is not as urbanized, the opportunities to carpool may not be that great.”

Davis noted that without a doubt, a variety of geopolitical uncertainties are pushing up crude oil prices, forcing consumers to dig deeper into their pockets to pay at the pump. A barrel of crude hit a high of $72.17 on April 19, up from nearly $62 a barrel from late March, according to the Missouri Department of Natural Resources Energy Center’s Energy Bulletin.