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Courtney Orton reportingHoliday travelers aren't getting any relief at the pumps this Memorial Day weekend. As a matter of fact, they will find gas prices higher when they return home. According to AAA, the average gallon of regular unleaded jumped 2 cents overnight to $3.93. That's up more than 35 cents from a month ago.
Eleven states and Washington, D.C., are now paying more than $4 a gallon. Utahns say they are definitely changing their driving habits because of the high gas prices, but the changes Utah drivers are making might surprise you.
There's been a lot of speculation about what it would take to change the habits of Utah drivers. Well, we asked, and more than half are driving differently. In an exclusive Dan Jones and Associates poll for KSL-TV and the Deseret News, 63 percent said yes, they're changing their driving habits as a result of high prices.
Carrie Fisher said, "I filled up with gas twice before the weekend, just to avoid it going up to $4 and having to pay that."
Of those who said yes, 95 percent said they're driving less. Sixty-one percent said they're slowing down. AAA says that's a good thing because aerodynamic drag increases and fuel decreases rapidly any time you drive faster than 55 miles per hour.
The majority of Utahns polled say they're driving less, but surprisingly, 91 percent said they're not taking mass transit more often, and 71 percent said they're not carpooling.
When asked about summer vacation plans, the majority of people polled said yes, high gas prices have caused them to scale back. Some, look at other options. Spencer Lythgoe said, "We have to go to California this summer because we have a wedding in the family. It ended up being cheaper for us to fly than to drive with gas prices."
High prices didn't seem to keep people from hitting the roads this holiday weekend. An estimated 31.5 million drivers will travel this weekend, according to AAA. That's only slightly lower than the number of drivers last year, when gas was about 60 cents less a gallon.
E-mail: corton@ksl.com
