By Lauren Wanko
NJ Today
Avon-by-the-Sea resident Al Lingo is getting ready for a road trip. He’s got a busy Memorial Day weekend planned.
“We’re gonna travel, we’re gonna run here, we’re gonna there. We’ll be traveling everywhere by car,” he said.
Lingo’s one of nearly 830,000 New Jersey residents expected to be on the road this coming holiday weekend. And when it comes to filling up their tanks, analysts say drivers will feel less pain at the pump.
“We’re actually gonna see some of the lowest prices in the country in New Jersey. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a lot of people be able to fill up for about $3.25 a gallon,” said Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst for GasBuddy.com. “Most people think that prices go up just before the holiday weekend. We’re very fortunate. They went up a week or so ago, but they’ve been dropping like a rock in the last eight days or so.”
Last year gas averaged $3.59 a gallon. Today’s average is $3.42 — 17 cents less per gallon. AAA says today’s average is the cheapest it’s been for the Memorial Day holiday since 2010.
Lower gas prices are especially good news to businesses owners along the Jersey Shore. Many of those communities were hammered by the superstorm and business owners are banking on a successful summer tourism season.
“It’s not gonna be an appreciable cost to actually move from North Jersey to South Jersey and come down to the shore. Expensive gas will not be an excuse not to go to the Jersey Shore,” Kloza said.
That’s exactly what Yvonne’s Café Manager Laura Neary wants to hear.
“Everyone wants to go to the beach for Memorial Day weekend, so lower gas prices, they’re able to travel more and then their budget might be a little bit bigger because of that and that always helps us,” Neary said.
The reason for the lower prices?
“They’re dropping because people are driving less,” Kloza said. “I wouldn’t say there’s necessarily less people on the road for commuting. But the difference is discretional driving, people just taking that ride out on a Tuesday night or a Saturday afternoon or whatever. That’s down.”
Better gas prices mean Ryan Pearsall may be hitting the road more.
“If it goes lower, yeah, absolutely, I’ll definitely be traveling further to see friends,” Pearsall said.
Others don’t pay much attention to what they’re paying at the pump.
“You know, I don’t think that much about gas prices when it comes to travel. If I wanna go someplace, I just go, cause you’re not gonna change the price of gas,” said David Ruch.
And with the summer quickly approaching, that’s the attitude Jersey Shore business owners hope drivers will share.