Filling up at the gas station is a familiar routine for most people, but the price of gas is especially important to cash-strapped college students.
Tight budgets match their tight deadlines, and that is the position Sam Daugherty, a sophomore sports media student at Indiana University, finds himself in.
He drives from Bloomington to Evansville and back every weekend, broadcasting high school football games part-time. Gas is a necessity for Daugherty, regardless of the price.
“It’s kind of just — it’s something that I need, so the price — it just kind of is what it is,” he said.
The trip up and down I-69 is a daunting one — 250 miles, four hours and 10 gallons of gas.
“It can get a little excessive at times, you know?” he said. “I make a little bit of money. The drive can get annoying, but it’s work.”
Daugherty’s money goes a little further than it did in the past. Average gas prices in the United States fell under three dollars a gallon for the first time since 2021 on Dec. 2, with some states seeing prices below $2.50.
Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at Gas Buddy, said gas prices naturally tend to rise and fall with the seasons.
“People don’t want to get outside as much in the winter as they do in the summer, when it’s like ‘roll the windows down, cruiser at sixty-six, do a road trip,'” De Haan said.
Daugherty said he noticed the seasonal cycle in the summer.
“During the summer it hurt a bit more,” he said. “Still, some of it’s trying to find the balance between do I want to go to the cheapest place and drive an extra fifteen minutes or get the one that’s right here because it’s just easier to do that?”
Sam Daugherty talks about his commute, strategies, reward systems and favorite gas station.
Another reason for the lower prices is the United States’ economy’s recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused gas prices to peak at north of five dollars per gallon in 2022.
De Haan also said stability in the Russia-Ukraine war is a factor.
“There are a lot of certainties that have become established two years into Russia’s war,” De Haan said. “There are not so many surprises anymore.”
Despite lower gas prices across the country, prices vary state-by-state. Daugherty said he uses this to his advantage.
“I don’t want to spend all my money on gas,” he said. “I don’t think I’ve ever gotten gas here in Bloomington — at least this year. I’ve always gotten it at Evansville because it’s always like twenty or thirty cents cheaper.”
Evansville is located just north of the Ohio River, which serves as the border between Indiana and Kentucky. De Haan said the city’s proximity to the border causes more competition for Evansville gas stations.
“Stations in Evansville are having to compete against much lower priced stations, because otherwise people will go across the border to fill their tanks up,” he said.
Patrick De Haan talks about how the conflict in the Middle East and the incoming Trump administration could impact gas prices.
Kentucky’s average gas prices were nearly 25 cents cheaper than Indiana’s average in early December.
Gas prices are expected to rise again in the spring, but Daugherty said his time and money will always fuel his priorities — no matter the price.
“Week-by-week I’ll be like ‘Oh, I paid five cents more last week,’ he said. “It’s not something I’ve actually kept track of over time.”
