HikeArizona.COM

Gas is up to $4.50 in Maranara, and I'm sure well over that in the Valley and Flagstaff. Some places out of state are already well over $6. However, in Arizona we are still not yet seeing $5+ as a common price, if at all.

Should this change, will you be likely to alter or change summer travel plans?

I'm considering dropping a trip to the Cabeza Prieta in the next month due to prices, as I can still go next winter if they drop. However, this was in a framework of prices dropping in a few months and prices being more reasonable come summer. If gas around here is $8 on average by June, $4.50 will seem cheap, and I will wish I at least did my desert trip.

My goal this summer was to go to the White Mountains in California, a region not exactly known for cheap gas, so I probably wouldn't do that if it was at $9 or $10/gallon in western Nevada and far east California. Wouldn't drive to eastern Montana or North Dakota, either. Maybe I would visit Flagstaff, instead? Maybe I would just go to the Angle Orchard and gorge on peaches?

@hikeaz
They also don't know what the term AR means!

Since the senate just introduced a bill to eliminate daylight saving time -- apparently by accident because most of them were paying no attention to the issue -- I move to make another totally inconsequential tradition go away forever; the pricing of fuel in fractions of a cent. A separate issue is that a penny is nearly worthless today and should probably be eliminated completely, but the idiocy of fuel being sold as something and 9/10ths should be outlawed. $4.49 is just fine. $4.499 is -- and always has been -- stupid.

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.

@chumley
Take it one step further, to the nearest .10.
That only buys you about 3 ounces at today's prices.

Prices have been leveling off. After noticing this, I looked for some news articles about it. They all said, "leveling off for now."

$6.39 here in Needles, CA, and $4.33 just across the river in Mohave Valley, AZ. People coming off the freeway don't know they can drive across the town bridge and get cheaper gas only a mile away. Most are only aware of the I-40 bridge.

chumley wrote:Since the senate just introduced a bill to eliminate daylight saving time -- apparently by accident because most of them were paying no attention to the issue

Apparently they didn't bother to see how well (or not) it worked out in 1974-1975...

Back to gas... Just filled up and had a double-take at the total... $90!
That's $48 more than the same amount of gas cost when I bought the 4Runner in 2017.

CannondaleKid wrote: ↑Mar 18 2022 1:26 pm
Back to gas... Just filled up and had a double-take at the total... $90!
That's $48 more than the same amount of gas cost when I bought the 4Runner in 2017.

wow, if you buy a tank of gas a week your annual fuel costs are almost $2,200 a year more now than they were in 2017

DixieFlyer wrote:wow, if you buy a tank of gas a week your annual fuel costs are almost $2,200 a year more now than they were in 2017

Coincidentally, $2,200/yr is the difference to my Social Security between 2017 and 2022... even with the 'biggest raise in decades' to Social Security.
And of course, as a result I've already cut back on regular hiking/biking outings.

DixieFlyer wrote:your annual fuel costs

yeah, and if you compare apples to apples, maybe not. Was every tank in 2017 $42 or was that one particularly inexpensive fill? Is every tank in 2022 $90, or is it a single instance?

It's like comparing that one day a single station was at $1.99 during the Covid downturn and are now comparing to a station that's $6.49 in Tusayan.

The most extreme comparisons are not necessary to illustrate the increase, which is clear and obvious to everybody without the exaggerations.

chumley wrote:Was every tank in 2017 $42 or was that one particularly inexpensive fill?

Just Chumming up the water??
What do apples have anything to do with what I stated?
As I clearly stated... it was "for the same amount of gas"
No, it was NOT a particularly inexpensive fill, it was what it usually takes when I run the tank down to the point which according to the display on the dash I have less than 10 miles to go, which usually means I have less than 1/2 gallon left.
Usually the only time I fill it sooner is if on a trip and would run out before getting to the next station... otherwise I run it until almost on fumes.

@CannondaleKid
There are pretty good statistics kept on the price of fuel. Either you just paid well over the current average price in the valley, or you were paying well below the average price in the valley in 2017. Both are certainly possibilities.

I also pay over $90 to fill my truck now. It's a lot! I've also filled it for $38 a few times in the past. To pretend that was what it "usually" took to fill would be me fondly remembering the best of times. Thankfully I can look up the data. Happy to chum the water anytime. Sadly it doesn't spark the engine.

CannondaleKid wrote:Chumming up the water??

He can't help it.

chumley wrote:The most extreme comparisons are not necessary to illustrate the increase, which is clear and obvious to everybody without the exaggerations.

Well. Look at the last 15 years of data and you see examples where the price rises a bunch, the lowers a bunch. 2.50-2.75 seems to be the "market rate", give or take, and then we get periods like this. So, honestly, probably was about twice as much, on average, today as then. To your expanded point though, is that's not the full story. The price per barrel of oil is quite low right now and producers are just trying to rape us for as much profit as they can, to add to their already record profits. And to cut off the, "well the price per barrel doesn't account for what's in the tanks right now!", please do some research on pricing of gas and how it historically works and the future market. This is simply capitalism "at its best". So, while yes, this particular day/week, that may be true, it's changes so quickly and the data clearly shows the averages, this is just (most likely) a temporary thing where the little people, as usual, are getting screwed at the expense of big profit.

@xsproutx
You stated... "The price per barrel of oil is quite low right now". Yesterdays closing price was $102.71.
Average closing price for 2022 is @92.26 which is a 10 year high. Seventy year chart for reference...
https://www.macrotrends.net/1369/crude- ... tory-chart

@LosDosSloFolks
I feel like you're trying to say I'm wrong but what that chart shows is that in the last 20 years or so, half were below above this, half was above, so I stand by my statement. It also ignores the simple fact that I stated earlier: why is gas the one thing that is expected to stay the same price when everything else changes? Even if we take that data at face value, the price per barrel has increased in the last year or two by... 20%? Tops? So why has gas increased by much more...?

I own a vehicle that gets about 12 MPG. When I fill the tank right now, it kind of sucks. When I owned another vehicle that got roughly the same MPG back in 2009, though, and the price of gas was higher than now, it sucked even more because my income was way lower. I will grant that I'm European and so maybe see gas a little different since the prices here are stupid low comparatively, but I moved here when I was 14 so I feel like I'm pretty neutral since I never actually grew up driving there.

My only real point is that people point to these gas prices and blame politics when it's clearly just companies trying to take advantage of the populous, the pandemic, and world events. Politics has little to do with it. I think we can all agree that we aren't fans of the dollar at the pump, though.

It appears some on here are feeling the effects of the Carownervirus.

@xsproutx
You seem to be taking this as an attack which it definitely is not. Once again, I'm only challenging the simple basis of your statement ..."The price per barrel of oil is quite low right now". This is patently false. The price of oil is not "quite low" and I attached supporting information to show that. Even after that, In your response you stated... "the price per barrel has increased in the last year or two by... 20%? Tops?" You wrote that in the form of a question even though the answer was in the link. The two year move in yearly average price is UP 75%. The 3 year is UP 70%. The 5 year is UP 65%. The only two periods in time where the price was higher was 1980 and 2008-11. I submit that any critical thinker would see this as todays price being quite high and not quite low in historical context. As a fellow engineer you should be well aware of the 'garbage in-garbage out rule of equations. Personal feelings on "big oil" and one's ideology have no place in this discussion.

The price we pay at the pump is not only determined by cost but also corporate profits and greed which are a part of capitalism. Capitalism is very flawed indeed but it is still head and shoulders above the alternative. I maintain that politics does play a significant role also, as price manipulation can help either of the parties with furthering an agenda.

This thread has become too protracted for the simple point of price increases being made by simple math. Please remember this is about the math and not about feelings. And as my engineering professor would always say...."Math is pure".

@LosDosSloFolks

LosDosSloFolks wrote:"Math is pure"

That's why they don't want to teach it anymore - it always leads to the truth. Emotion based sciences are much more effective in controlling the masses.