Are People traveling less because of Gas Prices?

[farmman]

I'm looking to see if my fellow campers are finding themselves traveling less because of high gas prices. I'm finding we are doing fewer long trips and more around home.

 

[Disney Campers]

gosh those prices sure hurt, but have not changed any plans yet

 

[campingcorgi]

I didn't change where I go (always FW!!!!!) just where I start from. Now FW is only about 45 minutes from the house instead of 670 miles. However, now I drive longer to work......

No, the gas prices aren't changing my plans, just hurting my budget

 

[bigdisneydaddy]

Fewer trip and closer to home. cant squeeze anything else out of the budget.
we wanted to go to VA this summer and FW and didnt have the $$ to do either. When the truck only gets 10mpg with the trailer it adds up fast.
I keep hearing it isnt hurting the economy yet but I gotta believe we are getting close.

 

[CharlesTD]

We haven't changed any of our plans and I know we pay way to much for gas up here at 98 cents/litre.

 

[SandrA9810]

Gas prices have jumped 20 cents here in the past 2 days. I managed to find a Hess station that still has it at 2.49 a gallon, and people were going in like mad. Not to mention that the credit card machine was down, and not many people like to carry cash around. There were a lot of angry people that waited like 10 mins to get to a pump, and found out they didn't have any cash on them.
Thankfully, this time I did have cash on me and managed to fill up, cost me 43$. But it does hurt since I just got a new job, and it's 40minutes away taking the highway. Things will be easier once I get a paycheck, but it's hurting us big time right now till we get that money.

We're also planning on going to FW this weekend for a back to school trip. But we're wondering how we're gonna get to work once we get back if we do take it. I just haven't told Kari I've already booked us two nights there.

 

[LegoMom3]

It would not change my plans for a big vacation (like WDW!!...but right now we don't have definite plans as to when we can go back ) but it sure is affecting where we go around home. It's costing over $40 to fill my minivan these days and I simply can't afford to do that more than once every week to 10 days. So we are really careful to plan our trips out, combine errands, etc.. Considering I have to drive 40 minutes just to get to a Walmart (rural NH, don't ya know...) I have to be careful with that tank of gas...There just isn't anywhere to pull more money from!!!!!

 

[SandrA9810]

lucky you, we do about twice the driving as the average person... going through a full tank of gas in less than a work week. We also end up doing oil changes about every month and a half to 2 months. So much for the extended 3 year service plan that we're gonna use up in like a year. We've done almost 15,000 miles on the truck and bought it last october. Kari's van, that ended up dieing cause the timing belt blew, died after 10 years and 400,000+ miles.

 

[allisophie]

Today gasoline was 2.55 here in St.Charles,tommorrow ?

we are a 2 truck family... luckily both dh and I drive about 8 miles round trip, now mind you we have to cross the bridge to get to our jobs.. so this can take one day and 20 minutes the next

we have our labor day weekend trip already paid for so no matter how much gasoline costs we are going.. we won't be able to get a refund from the campground. Our trip after that will be to Fort Wilderness the only way we will not be going is if a hurricane.. shhh no more hurricanes.

I have noticed alot of "for sale"signs on trucks and suv's as they drive by, DH reminds me my starbucks still costs more than gasoline and yes I have cut back on the decafe latte's

 

[stillh2o]

Well the higher fuel prices are taking more money out of our vacation funds. We have a boat and an Rv. The boat burns 68 gals an hour and the motorhome gets 8-10 miles gal. So we are taking less long boat trips and shorter camping trips. We had plans to travel the west coast of the US next year but with a new motorhome on the way we’ll have to wait and see.

 

[Caskbill]

We were hoping to go to the Great North American RV rally next April. It's going to be at Daytona Beach, and would make a great combination trip to stop at Ft. Wilderness also.

But at over 1000 miles one way, we're leaving it up in the air for now. It would be very expensive at today's gas prices, but we're afraid to make any reservations that far ahead for either one because at the rate things are going up, it could get over $3.00 gallon by then.

 

[the kabuki]

Today we're at $2.79!!! Give it another couple days and we'll be at $3.00.

Just wondering where the outrage is about this. I can remember that's all that was on the news when it was hovering at $2.00, congressional hearings, front page news stories, radio, etc. Seems like this time around when gas is jumping up 20 cents in a matter of hours, there's not that much about it, except for the complaining you do when your actually at the pump.

 

[CharlesTD]

If 3.00 dollars is scary to you come across teh border what we pay per litre converts to 3.95 or more a gallon.

 

[SandrA9810]

I hear ya charles... I was in Canada a couple years back. and it was like 75cents a litre. Granted I was in a very small town... Flin Flon, MB. So it took like two weeks to use up a tank of gas, even if you did drive everywhere.

Caskbill: You're worried about it being three dollars next april... it's expected to go up to 3$ by the end of the month, if not by the end of september.

You guys could do what kari did... write to your congressman, you voted for it. Make him do something about it.

I'm not even worried about road trips right now (since Kari wants to start at UCF next semester), but I have to worry about getting to work. I used a 1/4 of a tank just yesterday. I work about 40+ miles from home. This last tank I managed to fill up at 2.49, the very next day it was 2.59. The place was like a mad house, and the credit card machine was down, so you could only pay cash, although the lady inside was really really nice and did a prepay of 20$ on my hess card on the back up computers.

That's another thing, a lot of gas stations are offering rebates if you sign up with thier card. We got 10% for 3 months, now it's 5%. Part of the reason why prices are so high, is when you charge something, visa, mastercard, discover, all them charge the merchants like 2-3% for each transaction. Since you pay at the pumps now, they have to raise the price slightly to make up for the credit charges. If every one paid with cash, you could probably see a 5 cent drop.

 

[Caskbill]

If 3.00 dollars is scary to you come across teh border what we pay per litre converts to 3.95 or more a gallon.

That's true, but that's due to taxes. What do you pay for your annual car registration? In the U.S. all States are different, but here in Indiana I just paid $250 on my 3-year old car. A brand new mid-level car would be about $400. The annual taxes on the RV are over $600/year. (And that's cheap compared to some States)

If those annual taxes were paid at the pump rather than directly to the State, they would easily be equivalent to anything from $0.75 to $1.00/gallon for the car, or equivalent to $2.25/gal for the RV (2000 miles annually at 7.5mpg = 267 gallons. $600/267 gallons = $2.25/gal. Add that with today's pump price of about $2.70 and for the miles driven, it's equivalent to paying $4.95/gallon, or if separating all taxes (gasoline, registration), from the actual oil company price of the gas (about $2.20/gallon, then to drive the RV costs me 29-cents/mile in oil company gas, and 36-cents/mile in total taxes, for $0.65/mile total. (Of course this excludes insurance and maintenance....

Many places in the U.S. as well as Canada I believe, also have toll roads and toll bridges. So it all adds up when calculating the true cost of driving.

 

[CharlesTD]

In Ontario we pay 75 dollars a year for our sticker for our plates and we have the 407ETR which is privatly owned and operated toll road. You don't pay the toll when you enter or exit you get a bill in the mail about a week or 2 later usually. Mind you in Ontario our car insurance rates are crazy high.

 

[MMLong3996]

<<That's true, but that's due to taxes. What do you pay for your annual car registration? In the U.S. all States are different, but here in Indiana I just paid $250 on my 3-year old car. A brand new mid-level car would be about $400. The annual taxes on the RV are over $600/year. (And that's cheap compared to some States)>>

Are you speaking of renewing your car's tag each year? If so, this is outrageous! I'm in FL and we pay anywhere b/t $30-80, I'm guessing. When I had a personallized plate (vanity tag) it cost me $57 per year. I went to a regualr tag to save a bit of money and now I pay about $45.

 

[MMLong3996]

<<The annual taxes on the RV are over $600/year. (And that's cheap compared to some States)>>

And what is this for? I'm sorry for all the questions, it's just so strange what some states charge and others don't.

 

[minkydog]

No, I work from home, so I guess the money i save can go straight to the vacation budget. We have a trip to WDW scheduled for November, and a cross-country trip to Yellowstone next summer. Lord knows how much the gas will cost by then.

 

[Mac and Us]

We live in NH . We don't have a state income tax or sales tax. Revenue for the state comes from the car tags and property taxes.

We have a 2005 Winnebago Sightseer. A portion of the car tags goes to the town/city in which you live and another portion goes to the state. The town/city portion varies from town to town.

Car tags are based on base cost (town portion) and weight (state portion). We usually register in January (my birthday mo) but we bought it in the fall so we had to register it for 15 months the first time around. It was $1850. for 15 months. I'm guessing in Jan of 2006 it will cost me approx. $1350. to register it for the next 12 months.

Our property taxes for a 1500 SQ/FT cape on 1 acre of land on a back road in now where land is $3500. year.

Just thought I'd share our pain with ya!