Gasoline prices are nearly 80 cents more per gallon now than they were a year ago. While many continue to drive as usual, alternative modes of transportation are now being considered.
According to OregonGasPrices.Com (www.oregongasprices.com), the average gas price in Oregon on Tuesday was $2.83, compared with $2.82 nationally. One year ago, the figures were $2.05 for Oregon and $1.91 nationally.
In spite of the rise in gas prices, one local gas station said its business has not dropped.
At Campus Service Station, a 76 Station at 2091 Franklin Blvd., assistant manager Misty Keller said students and their parents account for about 70 percent of their customers.
“Since the college kids got back, it’s picked up quite a bit,” Keller said. “During the summer, it was pretty slow.”
Keller said business is “about the same” this year as it was at this time last year.
“Gas prices haven’t affected (business) much,” Keller said.
Keller said gas stations, while individually owned, do not have control over their own prices. Instead, the franchise sends out daily reports instructing stations to raise or lower their prices. Tuesday, the price for a gallon of regular gas at Campus Service Station was $2.83.
According to OregonGasPrices.Com, the cheapest gas price in Eugene on Tuesday morning was $2.65 for a gallon of regular at an Arco station at 2155 Cubit St., near Willamette High School.
Oregon legislators have made statements urging the federal government to regulate gas prices.
“It’s taking the help of all Americans to recover from Hurricane Katrina, from kids with lemonade stands to families making donations and taking in strangers,” Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said in a Sept. 14 statement. “All we’re asking the oil industry to do is not to gouge customers, to stop manipulating the market as they have for years. If the oil companies won’t step up in this time of crisis, the (Federal Trade Commission) needs to step in, and Congress has a duty to make sure that happens.”
A poll of 15,098 voters on OregonGasPrices.Com found that 66 percent of drivers think high gasoline prices will cause financial hardship for them or their families in the near future.
As reported in the New York Times on Tuesday, President Bush urged in a Monday press conference for Americans to avoid nonessential car trips. He directed federal agencies to cut their energy use and encourage employees to use public transportation.
Alternative transportation options in Eugene include the Lane Transit District bus system and bicycle paths. A University of Oregon student ID card doubles as a free bus pass on Lane Transit District buses, thanks to student incidental fees.
Today, volunteers from Sprocket, a student group from the Survival Center, will give out free coffee and breakfast food donated by local merchants to bicycle commuters in front of the Lillis Business Complex from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mechanics will also be available to fix bikes for free.
Monthly bicycle-appreciation events, on the last Wednesday of each month, started last spring to promote bicycle transportation and awareness about bicycle transportation opportunities in town. Sprocket member David Hansen said Wednesdays usually have more bicycle traffic than any other day of the week. He also said 500 to 600 bicyclists came to the last event, and 100 got their bicycles fixed.
“There seems to be a lot of bikes on campus now, more so than in the spring,” Hansen said.
He added that it was hard to say whether this was related to gas prices because the weather has been nice lately, and parking spaces for cars are limited on campus.

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