SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — With high prices at the pump, drivers have started to make changes to their routines.
“We just got this van instead of the pickup truck I was driving because it got better gas mileage,” one man said.
Gas prices are above $4 a gallon for regular across the Bay Area.
AAA’s gas tracker has the numbers for all counties.
The high numbers are making drivers feel, as they say, the pain at the pump.
“It is too high!”
AAA tells KRON4 News the reasons prices jumped this fall.
Refineries took longer to recover from outages.
Now the companies are switching to the winter blends, and doing routine maintenance to facilities.
This caused supply to diminish while demand remained unusually and unexpectedly high for this time of year.
AAA Spokesperson Devin Gladden discussed over the phone when prices are expected to drop.
“What we are seeing now, as supply increases because of imports because refineries are over coming the repairs they needed to make,” Gladden said. “We are now seeing production beginning to increase that will help to stabilize prices coming in the next week.”
As drivers wait to see prices go below four dollars, hopefully next week some still have sticker shock.
“I don’t think we have a lot of choice,” one man said. “If we want to drive we have to pay the prices that are being charged.”
If demand remains high, that puts pressure on prices according to AAA.
So going into the Thanksgiving holiday – when more people are driving – it is unclear which direction price will go.