Gas prices drop 7 cents in state, trend continues
There’s hope after two straight weeks of falling gas prices that filling up at the pump will continue to get a bit less painful over the next month.
The average for a regular gallon of gas in Massachusetts dropped 7 cents over the last week. The Bay State’s average gas price is now $4.93 per gallon, which is 11 cents down from the record high of $5.04 two weeks ago.
The current gas price remains 20 cents higher than a month ago ($4.73) and is a whopping $1.95 higher than last June 27 ($2.98). Gas prices skyrocketed following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“We still have a ways to go until the month-ago price, but we’re definitely heading in the right direction for the time being, and hopefully the trend continues,” Mark Schieldrop of AAA Northeast told the Herald on Monday.
“We should see prices continue ticking down over the next week or so,” he added. “Prices are still high, but we’re in a lot better place than we were. Slow and steady relief.”
A drop in the global price of oil helped the national average for a gallon of gas to fall for a second week, landing at $4.89.
Economic fears of a potential global recession leading to less demand for oil dropped the price to around $107 per barrel, down from $110 last week.
“There’s overall concern that demand is going to drop off because of the global economy slowing down,” Schieldrop said. “People are feeling the overall temperature of the economy, and there’s a little bit of a chill in the wind, and we’ll see how it plays out in the long term.”
Ahead of the Fourth of July, AAA is predicting that car travel in the U.S. will surge despite the high gas prices.
AAA anticipates that 47.9 million people will travel 50 miles or more from home over the holiday weekend — an increase of 3.7% over 2021, bringing travel volumes just shy of those seen in 2019.
The biggest surprise — car travel — will set a new record despite historically high gas prices with 42 million people hitting the road. Almost 1.37 million people from Massachusetts will travel, more than 1.2 million by car, which are both higher than a year ago.
“There’s pent-up travel demand,” Schieldrop said. “People are determined to travel, especially after the last couple of years during the pandemic.”
In Massachusetts, the busiest travel is expected to occur on Thursday on I-93, I-95 and the Mass Pike. The largest increase over typical traffic should occur on I-93 South from exits 20 to 4, where traffic is expected to be 103% higher than average.
The worst time to travel is expected to be Thursday and Friday afternoons when travelers heading to their destinations mix with commuters heading home for the weekend.