As Gas Prices Go Up, Impact Trickles Down

It is hard to watch the numbers flutter ever upward on the gas pump these days. A look at the ripple effect of rising gas prices across the country:

The End of Fun and Games

Gas prices are not doing much for the love life of Fernanda Tapia.

A student at Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass., Ms. Tapia, 21, is among the untold number of money-strapped college students who have been grounded by the pumps.

Ms. Tapia’s red 2004 Dodge Neon was supposed to be a ticket to freedom when her brother passed it down to her in January. She had planned to drive to Manhattan each weekend to visit her boyfriend at New York University, and also dreamed of going out to restaurants and making day trips with friends.

But the car has been nothing but a money-guzzler, she said, leaving her so short of cash that the car often sits in the parking lot outside her apartment.

NY Times