Freedom to move around rises as gas prices fall

The cost of gasoline hit Tammy Williams hard when she drove her pickup from Baltimore to New Hampshire last weekend to visit her son at Dartmouth College. She spent $450 filling the tank.

So she was relieved to find gas near her Northeast Baltimore home yesterday for less than $3 a gallon. At the Sunoco station on York Road and Cold Spring Lane, regular gas sold for $2.79.



…For consumers, the drop in gas prices has come as a ray of light in an otherwise gloomy economy that has consumers worried about jobs, rising costs, stagnant home values and the security of their savings and investments.

“It’s awesome and saves a lot of money,” said Steve Castellanos, 24, an insurance estimator who said his job expenses have increased because he drives long distances. “It seems like you’ve got to ride out the bad to get to the good.”

Alfred Washington, a 70-year-old great-grandfather from East Baltimore, said he works as a maintenance man for Villa Maria School in Baltimore because he can’t afford to retire. He said he had cut out trips to Atlantic City, but lower gas prices might allow him to rethink the trips he once enjoyed.

“I’m glad it did [go down],” he said of the gas prices. “You can move around a little more freely.”

Baltimore Sun