By Megan Bingham
Students may think twice about taking a road trip this summer.
Experts are predicting gas rates to peak at four dollars a gallon this summer, according to an article in the Chicago Sun-Times. Experts say the four-dollar rate is assuming no changes occur in the Middle Eastern situation and no major natural disasters occur, like last year''s Hurricane Katrina.
The national average for gasoline is $2.93 a gallon, which is 80 cents higher than last summer, according to the American Automobile Association website. While the gas prices have continued to rise steadily this year, it isn''t hard to believe prices could hit four dollars
Like motorists across the country, Provo residents have also felt the pinch at the pump. Prices have gone up by 59 cents since just last month and even though the current $2.88 is below the national average, prices were 69 cents lower last summer.
'I''m shocked and appalled,' said JaNae Besendorfer, a senior from Nephi. 'It will just be so expensive to go anywhere.'
However, not everyone believes gasoline will hit the predicted four dollars.
'I think it will cap,' said Mukesh Bindraban, as he worked the counter at the 7-eleven on University Avenue. 'I think they''re having a problem keeping that price up.'
Bindraban''s 7-eleven currently has the lowest prices in Provo according to AAA, a fact that Bindraban is proud of. He said he keeps the prices down and makes less profit because he knows his customers are students.
Despite considerations like these, students will still have to budget for higher gasoline prices this summer.
Besendorfer said if gas hits $4 dollars a gallon, she would have to better plan trips to the store. She also anticipated tuition increases at BYU.
'I don''t know how else they would fund it,' she said. 'They have to fund it somehow.'
But tuition increases hadn''t even occurred to BYU''s Director of Transportation Services, Scott Sherwood. He said he had no idea about that. Sherwood said Transportation Services would continue using conservation methods as gas prices climb.
'We do a lot of conservation measures and we''re trying some different measures to eliminate idle time, but we haven''t come out and made another policy,' Sherwood said. 'We''re hoping people use some common sense.'
Sherwood believes there may come a time when a more firm policy will need to be created, but current conservation methods are working well.
BYU''s Transportation Services are conserving gasoline by purchasing and using hybrid and electric cars on campus and invertors on vans. Idle time is also discouraged.