The average price of a gallon of self-serve regular gasoline in San Diego County rose Tuesday for the seventh consecutive day, increasing eight-tenths of a cent to $4.637, its highest amount since Oct. 15, 2012.
The average price has increased 9.2 cents over the past seven days, including three-tenths of a cent Monday, according to figures from the AAA and Oil Price Information Service. It is 21.2 cents more than one month ago and $1.488 higher than one year ago.
KPBS spoke to drivers at the ARCO station on the corner of Rosecrans and Lytton streets.
“I think it’s horrible. I think the high gas prices are a pain and I don’t like ‘em," said Matt Capron of San Diego as he filled up his Cadillac Escalade.
Victoria Flores just drove her SUV down from Visalia.
“We have to wind up searching on our app to find cheaper gas prices cause it affects us so much. I mean it takes at least… I like to say the $50 mark is the new $20 in gas right now,” she said.
But Jeff Dyer, visiting from Massachusetts had a different perspective.
“I think there’s a good reason to have the expensive prices that we all stop using our cars as much as we do,” Dyer said.
The average price is within 8.8 cents of matching San Diego County's record high of $4.725 set on Oct. 8, 2012.
"Average gas prices in many Southern California regions continue to climb toward their prior record highs set in October 2012 but there is a small gleam of hope as some of the production issues that plagued refineries in the region seem to be abating, demand seems to be softening nationally according to OPIS, and the (U.S. Energy Information Administration) noted (Monday) that many of the shale oil production sites in the country have been increasing production," said Jeffrey Spring, the Automobile Club of Southern California's corporate communications manager.
