The busy vacation season of summer is about to get underway, but it’ll be starting off less busy than in past years. With record high gasoline prices, Triple-A-Iowa spokeswoman Rose White says fewer people will be taking to the roads this Memorial Day weekend.
White says, "The number of Americans traveling during the Memorial Day holiday period will be down nearly one-percent from last year’s record high." The motor club says the statewide average for gas in Iowa is running $3.70 a gallon, 9 cents below the national average and 40 cents higher than a year ago. She says about 360,000 fewer Americans are getting away for the first holiday of the summer season, but still, travel is not coming to a standstill.
She says "A significant number of travelers will take trips this Memorial holiday weekend more than 12-percent of the U.S. population traveling 50 miles or more away from home." Iowa’s current statewide average of $3.70 a gallon is down a penny a gallon from Saturday, when $3.71 hit a new record high for the state. White says on a one-thousand mile trip in a car that gets 20 miles per gallon, people are paying about $23 more in fuel than one year ago.