Price of Gas Has Motorists Staying Close to Home
By Wayne Crenshaw, The Macon Telegraph, Ga.
Oct. 6–Mamas, don’t take it personally if the kids don’t visit much these days.
Just blame the price of gas.
Middle Georgia motorists interviewed Wednesday were nearly unanimous that they have made alterations in driving habits now that the price of regular gasoline has passed $3 a gallon. One of the leading changes is cutting back on unnecessary weekend trips, including visits to family.
Jody Wells of Alamo said he has a newborn niece in Athens that he would like to visit more, but he just can’t make the trip as often as he’d like to because of the price of gas.
“We’ve definitely cut down on trips,” he said as he ate a sandwich at the Dublin Mall food court. Bringing his own lunch is another change he’s made to make up for the extra gas costs.
One trip he can’t cut is his 30-mile commute to work in Dublin. His wife also works in Dublin as a schoolteacher, but their schedules don’t allow them to ride together except on Fridays.
So, would the price of gas make him think about moving to Dublin? Maybe, if it stays high or keeps going up, he said, but right now it’s too early. As natives of Wheeler County, he and his wife would like to stay there.
“I’d never thought I’d say this, but if it would just go back to $2.50, I’d be happy,” he said.
But the increase in gas has given him more motivation in his job, which pays him on a commission.
“It makes me want to make more sales.”
The price of gas has been particularly hard on Arline Beaty and her husband. She commutes from Toomsboro to her job at the J.C. Penney department store in Dublin, while her husband drives to Macon to work. She tried unsuccessfully to get a job working in Macon so she and her husband could ride together.
To conserve gas, she tries to cut out extra trips as often as possible. It used to be she would make a special trip on Saturdays to buy groceries. Now she takes care of that on Fridays.
“I have to go after work when I’m tired and on my way home,” she said.
One other thing she’s done to save gas is “cut grass less,” she said.
Gloria Lord of Rentz said she would like to visit family in Illinois but can’t.
“It’s just too expensive right now,” she said.
She and her husband once enjoyed making day trips on weekends to places such as High Falls, but they’ve cut out those jaunts, too.
It’s hard to say whether traffic overall has actually decreased. Dublin police Cpl. James Champion, who oversees the traffic unit, said he hasn’t noticed a drop-off in traffic.
“Our accident rate hasn’t gone down,” he said.
Don and Delores Corriveau are a retired couple living in Yonkers, a community in southern Laurens County about 20 miles from Dublin. Multitasking when they make a trip to town is one of the key differences in their driving habits. When gas prices were lower, they made trips as needed. Now when they go into town, they try to think of everything they need and get it all done at once.
“We try to coordinate all of our trips to make sure we get the most out of it,” Don Corriveau said.
They also have watched their speed more closely, he said, as a way to save gas. And the couple is considering trading their Chevy Astro van for a vehicle that gets better mileage.
Could the rising price of gas eventually cause an exodus in the so-called bedroom communities, where many people live but drive elsewhere to work?
Mike Polsky, the sole commissioner in Bleckley County, said he has seen no signs of that.
“I have seen more car pooling,” he said. “Several friends of mine who work at (Robins Air Force Base) are car pooling now.”
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