Will Cioci had big plans for 2022. When winter finally wore off, the lifelong Madisonian and recent graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison would load up his 2014 Mazda CX-5 and embark on a two-month road trip. He mapped a clockwise route that would take him to see family in Vermont, through the Northeast, across the South and up the entire West Coast.
He’d been dreaming of the trip for years. But as his departure date got closer, he watched gas prices soar. Sanctions on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, coupled with labor shortages, restricted oil supplies, while demand remained strong. In March, the average cost of a gallon shattered the historic record of $4.10 set in 2008, though today’s prices are still lower in real dollars than the 2008 price tag, which would be equivalent to $5.38 in 2022 dollars.
After graduating from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, lifelong Madisonian Will Cioci headed out on a two-month road trip around the U.S. that he'd been planning for years. To deal with high gas prices, he's eliminated some planned city stops in favor of more nights camping for free in National Forests.
On May 31, with the national average at $4.62, Cioci, a bartender and freelance photographer who formerly worked for Wisconsin Watch and the Daily Cardinal, set out on his trip anyway. This was the time, Cioci figured, between finishing college and starting a steady job.
“This is something I’ve been dreaming up for a while, so I wasn’t gonna not do the trip,” Cioci said. “But it made me a lot more nervous, thinking about how much money am I actually going to be spending and how much money am I going to have left when I get back to Madison.”
Hoping to slow skyrocketing inflation across the economy, the Federal Reserve raised interest rates by three-quarters of a percentage point earlier this month, the largest increase in nearly 30 years. With investors fearing such a move could lead to recession, the stock market tumbled and oil prices fell.
Vehicles line up to get fuel at Woodman’s. Woodman’s is one of the lowest priced gas stations in Madison.
In Madison, the average price fell 18 cents over the last week to $4.64. The national average fell about 8 cents, but at $4.90, it’s still nearly $2 higher than a year ago.
The spike has set politicians in search of solutions. Last Tuesday, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers signed an executive order prohibiting price gouging at the pump, prompting backlash from state petroleum retailers, who called the market “one of the most competitive marketplaces in the country” and said it was “ridiculous” to blame gas station owners for high gas prices.
Last Wednesday, President Joe Biden urged Congress to suspend the federal gas tax for three months to “provide families some immediate relief.” He also called on states to waive to temporarily waive their gas taxes too, as five states have already done. Wisconsin is not among them.
Meredith Mitts, a public affairs specialist for AAA, said her organization is watching that proposal closely.
“We honestly don't know exactly when this will happen, if it'll happen and what final impacts consumers will see at the pump,” Mitts said. “Even if we have both the federal and state taxes, it might be a limited reduction … because the lack of taxes can very quickly be offset by a steady increase in oil prices, and right now the market is so volatile.”
Now about three weeks and 5,000 miles into his two-month trip, Cioci spoke with the Cap Times from the road in northern Arkansas. He’s been stretching his travel budget by camping for free in U.S. National Forests and cooking on his camp stove. Aside from gas, he estimates he’s spending around $5 a day.
His compact SUV gets around 27 miles to the gallon, but he’s filling up nearly everyday, at a cost of around $50 a tank.
“It’s adding up, for sure. It’s kicking my butt a little bit,” Cioci said, adding that he’s “not super excited” to reach California, where gas prices currently average $6.35.
Demand up for hybrids and electric cars
Back in Madison, some residents are saving money at the pump by staying home when they can. Sabrina Madison, founder of the Progress Center for Black Women, has temporarily reduced the hours that her downtown office is open, instructing staff to work remotely on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. The move, she said, is designed to “help staff keep their budgets in check” by not having to drive to the office five days a week.
Other Madisonians are looking to trade in their cars for more fuel-efficient vehicles. At Smart Motors Toyota dealership, general sales manager Justin Jackson said customers now come in everyday looking for hybrids or plug-in electric vehicles.
Regular, unleaded gas is being sold at a rate of $4.79 per gallon at a Citgo gas station in Madison on Friday, Jun. 24, 2022.
The dealership can’t keep up. Before the pandemic-induced shortage of microchips, the dealership’s lots typically had 400 to 600 new cars for sale at a time, along with around 200 used cars. When Jackson spoke to the Cap Times on Tuesday, those 200 had dwindled to 65. Most new cars now are already sold before they arrive at the dealership, leaving him with just five new cars on the lot this week to offer to customers.
Hybrid and electric vehicles are especially hard to come by. Customers looking for the most popular models — the RAV4, Highlander, Sienna and Prius, which offer 30 to 50 miles per gallon — face lengthy waits. More than 600 are currently sitting on a waitlist.
“Some people come in today and say, ‘Hey, I’d like a Prius.’ You might not get one this year, just because of the list we have and how many cars we're actually getting in a month in comparison to normal times,” Jackson said.
Faced with those waits, Jackson said, some opt for the gas version of the hybrid model they’d hoped for, choose a fuel-efficient gas vehicle like a Camry or Corolla, or trade their 10 mpg gas-guzzler for a relatively more efficient used car while they wait for their new vehicle to come in.
“Even if they can't get a hybrid or plug-in vehicle, they're still exploring all their options and realizing that it is an upgrade from what they're currently driving,” Jackson said.
He thinks high gas prices might drive more people to trade or sell their old cars, potentially easing the yearslong shortage of used cars. Last year, the dealership hired a staff member whose only job is to buy used cars, scouting Facebook Marketplace and taking walk-in customers who aren’t looking to sell, not trade.
“You had people who had a car for the kids, another car for the kid coming home for the summer, and then their two cars. They're downsizing,” Jackson said.
A spike in e-bikes
Others are looking for ways to get where they’re going without a car. At Crazy Lenny’s E-Bikes on Odana Road, digital marketing manager David Rautio has seen a spike in the number of people shopping for an electric bike to replace some of their car trips with bike rides.
Kim Swenson answers questions Tom Happe has regarding electric bicycles at Crazy Lenny's E-Bikes in Madison.
Before gas prices shot up, Rautio said they’d usually get such requests a few times a week, with plenty of other customers simply looking for a recreational outlet or a way to stay active despite a physical disability.
“Now, I would say that's the majority of what we hear. Instead of a handful per week, we hear it a handful of times per day,” Rautio said.
Especially popular, he said, are the cargo-style electric bikes, complete with built-in racks for carting around children or groceries. “We've got a lot of parents coming in saying, ‘I need to take my kids to school, and it's gonna be a lot easier and more cost-effective if I can just throw them on the back of my bike … than hauling them in the car.’”
The bikes aren’t cheap. Rautio said the store stocks only “high quality” models with sticker prices from $1,000 to $10,000. But, according to Rautio’s calculations, riding an e-bike for the same distance as the average car would cost less than $30 a year in electricity, compared to the $1,000 to $2,000 the average American pays to gas up their car each year.
“The savings that you get with an e-bike far exceeds what an e-bike costs in a typical year,” Rautio said. “It’s a great option for people looking to save money and actually choose a more eco-conscious way to travel.”
Bus fares steady, cab fares to rise
Those who don’t own cars are feeling the sting at the checkout line rather than the pump. Nationwide, consumer prices overall are up 8.6% over the last year, driven in part by higher costs of the fuel needed to produce and transport goods.
Madison’s buses have so far been insulated from the shock. Thanks to an agreement in which the city locks in rates for a full calendar year, Metro is paying just $1.84 per gallon of diesel for 2022, marketing supervisor Jessy Stammer said in an email.
“Prices have not been advantageous to lock in for 2023 yet, however we monitor prices on a weekly basis to ensure the best rate,” Stammer said. There have been no discussions about raising bus fares, Stammer said. Twenty-one of the city’s buses are hybrids. Another three all-electric buses, newly acquired with a $1.3 million grant from the Federal Transit Administration, are still in testing.
“In light of the rising cost, we encourage commuters to try public transit if they haven’t before,” Stammer said, noting that the $65 standard, 31-day unlimited ride pass may cost less than some drivers pay for a single tank of gas.
Cab riders, meanwhile, will see a difference. On Wednesday, the board of Union Cab of Madison Cooperative, the city’s largest taxi fleet, voted to raise its fares for its 50 cabs in response to higher gas prices. The change, anticipated to take effect in August, would increase the starting rate by 75 cents and raise the per mile rate from $3.50 to $4.50.
While many cab companies rent vehicles to their drivers and require drivers to pay for gas, business manager Bill Carter said the cooperative covers that cost. It’s lower because they buy wholesale, but this month’s prices are up to $4.51, $1.38 higher than in January.
“Even though we're buying for less, we've experienced the same amount of increase that everyone else has,” Carter said. “Whatever (extra) we're spending extra in fuel is less to go to other places… to bills, to raises, to something like that.”
What’s next at the pump?
Despite the higher gas prices, AAA anticipates 42 million Americans will travel 50 miles or more by car this Fourth of July weekend. Some may shorten their trips or stay in a cheaper hotel to stretch their budgets.
In a “normal year,” AAA’s Mitts said, prices would spike around a holiday and then level off. But she’s not making any guesses as to whether that trend holds in this unusual year. “It'll remain to be seen based on what's going on globally … As we know, things can change, depending on hurricanes and wildfires and civil unrest internationally.”
For those looking for signs, Mitts said, “make sure you're watching the news and seeing what's going on, because those things all impact our prices.”
