NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON — "Being in Kansas is a good thing in terms of gas prices," said Shawn Steward with AAA Kansas.
"It doesn't seem like it when you're filling up, but $4.12 a gallon as a state average, where we are today, is actually the second cheapest in the country, behind only Oklahoma. If you are traveling in the region this weekend, Arkansas, Missouri, Nebraska and even Colorado are all in the top 10 cheapest gas prices."
Even though the summer travel season often sees more pain at the pump, Steward says that's not necessarily a done deal.
"Once you get to a certain point, there are going to be people who scale back their driving just for budget reasons," Steward said. "We refer to that as demand erosion. Earlier this week, we saw some numbers where demand had actually gone down. We're expecting higher demand for the holiday weekend, as people go on their road trips. We'll take a look at it next week to see if that demand happens to drop again. I think that may be some indication that demand erosion might be kicking in."
Memorial Day is still a mostly driving holiday, though, so what happens at the pump this weekend could be different than the non-holiday times this summer.