Prof. Bradley Walker
With gas prices rising across the United States people are panicking.
Prices started to increase when the covid pandemic spread throughout the globe.
Gasoline markets were thrown out of whack while the world was in almost total lockdown. People couldn’t go to work so the economy fell through.
The second hit on the gas prices came when Russia invaded Ukraine earlier this year.
“Russia’s war in Ukraine has caused a rapid 20%-plus spike in oil and gas prices in mere weeks,” according to CBS News.
Sanctions on Russian gas don’t directly impact the U.S. as much, because the states don’t import as much fuel from them as they do other countries. However, the sanctions do influence the gas market as a whole which is messing up the whole system.
As gas prices stay immense and show no signs of falling down to regular pricing, people are looking towards methods on how to conserve fuel.
Bradley Walker, a Professor of Automotive Technology at OCCC, says there are many ways to help conserve gas in a vehicle.
He reveals “maintenance, proper tire pressure, proper alignment, and then driving habits” all have to do with fuel mileage.
Maintaining good driving habits would mean not accelerating or decelerating too quickly. If people are too heavy on the gas pedal or break then they could end up using more gas.
“Another thing that can affect your miles per gallon is the traffic you drive in, how much idling you do,” Walker said.
Walker points out that another harmful thing that can affect someone’s fuel mileage is remote-starting.
If the weather is at one extreme or another, people will want to have their car ready to go so it isn’t too hot or cold.
This isn’t a good idea as the car is just sitting there, going nowhere, and using up gas.
Finding a good gas station that offers relatively good prices is difficult to find in any city.
“We get complaints about rising gas prices, but I’ve heard that we are cheaper [than other stores],” Terry, a worker at a Casey’s gas station said, “People get more price conscious and they are willing to go a little bit out of the way to knock ten cents off. One of the big deals that Kaseys advertises is that, when you rack up points, instead of converting it to free stuff in the store, it is ten cents off each gallon of gas. Now that people are getting more conscious of price, they are looking for ways to save that extra little penny.”
Gas stations are having to compete with each other over prices, as many people just want to find the cheapest store.
One of the best things the stores can offer are deals on gas like Casey’s.
People want to save money, so finding deals and even reducing the price by a few cents will increase business.
With gas prices at an annoying high and people having to worry about how to conserve gas and where to buy it there is one type of car that is excelling during this time: the hybrid.
Hybrids, specifically gasoline electric hybrids, are all the rage right now.
“If they run out of battery they always have gasoline to fall back on,” according to Walker.
Hybrids are part electric car and part regular car, but they get the best of both worlds.
A person using this brand of car can use the battery, and then when that runs out, they can turn to the gasoline tank. At night, they can recharge the battery and refuel the tank.
While electric cars are dependent on only batteries and gasoline-powered vehicles on only gas, hybrids can use both to get where they need to go.
There are many disadvantages in our economy today with prices rising. However, people have to find ways to not let this discourage them. If that involves going the extra mile to reach the gas station with the better prices or giving up remote starting, then it’s worth it.
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