As U students struggle to pay tuition costs, gas prices have skyrocketed by almost 50 cents per gallon in the past month.
In the midst of the price surge, commuting students are looking for ways to save money on fuel and are riding public transportation rather than driving.
Others, however, are taking a different approach. Many U students joined a national gas boycott Tuesday.
The boycott was sparked by a national mass e-mail from an unnamed source urging drivers to not buy gas on May 15.
The e-mail read that in April 1997, a national “gas out” was conducted in protest of high prices and “prices dropped 30 cents a gallon overnight.”Despite all the hype, gas prices continued to climb Tuesday.
Utah AAA spokeswoman Rolayne Fairclothe said nationally gas prices actually increased a record of 1.6 cents Wednesday. Utah’s prices increased .7 cents–also a record, she said.
Mike Hibert, a junior English major, said he participated in the boycott, even though it didn’t make a huge difference.
“I figured it couldn’t hurt,” he said. Fairclothe said the e-mail’s 1997 statistics are most likely not true because it would require multiple groups of people to boycott over long periods of time in order to make a significant decrease in prices, she said.
“It may make people feel better to do (the boycott), but in the long term, that doesn’t do it,” Fairclothe said.
Utah gas prices peaked at an average of $3.19 per gallon Wednesday according to Utahgasprices.com. Nationally, prices were closer to $3 per gallon.
But this isn’t the first time in recent years that gas prices have increased dramatically.
Fuel prices hit a record $3.57 per gallon in 2005. Those prices dropped considerably for a time, but now that summer has hit, there isn’t a lot of leeway for students to find cheaper gas.
And it’s beginning to frustrate many of them.
“It’s a pain to drive anyway, and now that (gas) prices are high (it’s even worse),” said a frustrated Kira Ayish, a senior in environmental studies. “And because it’s summer, we know they’re only going to go up.”Ayish said she walks to save money. And even though walking doesn’t cover a lot of miles, she said it’s already paying off. And she is not alone. Other U students are choosing to ride mass transit or carpool.
Mike and Miranda Hibert said they must compromise to meet rising fuel costs. “He drives, but I take TRAX,” said Miranda Hibert, a junior nursing major. The couple said it’s difficult to make ends meet, let alone pay for gas. And Mike Hibert said the true reason his wife chooses to ride TRAX instead of driving is because “we can’t afford another parking pass.”?Miranda Hibert agrees that because U students have more to budget for than just gas for travel, it makes sense to use public transportation, which she emphasized is free to U students. With the cost of tuition, student fees, food and recreation, gas is almost always out of the question, she said.
“(Riding TRAX) saves me probably 40 or 50 bucks a month,” Miranda Hibert said.
Her husband will be joining her on TRAX when his parking pass expires in the fall.
“It’s always worth the extra cash,” Mike Hibert said.