Gas price adjusts habits

By KEN de la BASTIDE
Tribune enterprise editor

May 11, 2008 10:11 pm

— With gas prices at $3.78 a gallon, Kathy Hume is noticing changes in her family’s lifestyle.
The 24-year-old Kokomo mother of two drives a 1994 Cadillac, which she admits doesn’t get good gas mileage.
“We don’t go out to eat as much and stay home as much as we can,” she said. “We have no vacation plans, but will take weekend trips to places like Turkey Run [State Park]. We’ll travel with other family members and take one vehicle.”
As the price at the pump increases, Hume also notices an increase in food costs.
“We’re planning trips,” she said. “Instead of going to two or three different grocery stores, we’re going to one if we can.”
Hume doesn’t expect the price of gasoline to go down.
“We watch for when the price is down and fill up and try to stretch it as far as possible,” she said.
Penny Peace-Cornelius, 48, who drives a Ford Topaz, said no vehicle is getting good gas mileage at the current prices.
“It costs a fortune,” she said. “We’ve been walking a lot and ride bicycles back and forth to church. When we don’t have to use a car, we don’t.”
Peace-Cornelius said the increased cost for food has her shopping around for the staples.
“If we don’t have three places to stop at in the same area, we don’t go,” she said of her family’s errands.
She said though she hopes gas prices will go down, she is not hopeful.
“It might come down when the Democrats get back in the White House,” she said, “but it will go back up again.”
Peace-Cornelius said the price of gas will impact a lot of groups that have traveled in the past, like youth groups going on field trips.
She said the family is considering a two-seater car which is powered like a bicycle or with an electric motor.
“I tell people it is cheaper to buy long underwear than gasoline,” Peace-Cornelius laughs.
Bill Deafenbaugh, 70, said the increased cost has caused him to plan out every trip.
“I watch where I drive, you don’t just jump in the car anymore and go,” he said.
Concerning the high prices, he said, as a nation, we won’t take the action that should be done, such as building more refineries and expand Alaskan and off-shore exploration.
“A friend said we’ll know there is an energy shortage when the school buses are full and the parking lots are empty,” he said. “We need more public transportation.”
Deafenbaugh said he can remember when gasoline cost 25 cents per gallon or five gallons for a dollar.
“I expect the price to go higher,” he said. “We need to conserve and pitch in. It used to be that everyone who rode contributed to the cost of the fuel.”
Gas prices are not a concern to Peter Inman, 19, a Taylor High School student who drives a Buick Roadmaster Estate.
“It hasn’t caused me any problems,” he said. “My parents are providing gas money because I drive my siblings around. If I had to pay for the gas, I would see if my dad would trade me cars, he drives a Cavalier.”
Inman called the current cost per gallon “ridiculously high.” He said many of his classmates drive smaller cars.
“Personally, I don’t see a problem with drilling in Alaska,” he said. “The one pipeline was supposed to have helped the environment, so I don’t see the harm in another one or two.”
Alan Dockemeyer, 53, has already traded in one vehicle for a smaller car and is considering trading in his Chevrolet pickup truck for another one.
“I’m considering going to one vehicle,” he said. “I’m planning trips and trying to make one stop instead of two when going out.”
He can remember gasoline selling for 19 cents.
“We’re going to have to start changing as a nation,” he said of fuel consumption. “I remember in the 1970s the government told the car and oil companies to develop alternative fuels, but let them off the hook.”
Dockemeyer believes it’s possible the price for a gallon of gas will eventually reach $5 to $7 per gallon.