Eastern Carolina drivers react to gas prices rising once again

GREENVILLE, N.C. (WITN) - It’s getting even more expensive to fill your tank in Eastern Carolina, and with summer on its way, drivers are worried about their plans being impacted.

“I went to the beach last week. About $120 I put in my car altogether,” Antwan Speller, a Greenville driver said as he waited for his car to fill up again.

It will cost you just about $4.52 a gallon to fill up your tank in Eastern Carolina, but that is just if you are using regular gas.
“They are outrageous,” Speller said of the prices. “It was about $80 to fill my car up right now, and you can see I take 93 [octane] so that’s $5 right there. It can’t get any worse than that.”

It isn’t just cars that need filling up. Certain boats and lawn mowers add to the bill at the pump, making this summer even more expensive than the last.

For James Perry, also a Greenville driver, the impact of the higher prices isn’t just seen in his wallet. He has noticed a change in everyone around him.

“It’s a stressful situation and you see it in people, but you don’t say nothing because you don’t want nothing to escalate,” Perry said. “I’m seeing it in a lot of people in the area that I stay in because you know you say something to them, they’ve got an attitude, and all of that’s because of these gas prices and things that are going on in life.”

Gas Buddy says the state’s rates now sit $0.45 higher than they were a month ago and more than $1.60 higher than a year ago.

As the weather warms up and people are looking to take a weekend trip to the coast, higher gas prices are getting in the way.

“It’s been pretty rough. I mean typically when I get to about a quarter of a tank, I’ll go ahead and top it off because I don’t like to get on fumes,” driver Chris Omyette said. “We went to Carolina Beach this weekend to visit my mom and had to get gas on the way back and I stopped at $40 hoping that maybe it would go down before I have to fill up again, but probably not the case.”

The U.S. Department of Energy says the average driver can improve their fuel economy by roughly 10%.
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People are advised to help their wallets by accelerating and braking gently, using cruise control, and keeping tires properly inflated.