New Yorkers filled up with more gall per gallon yesterday as gasoline prices reached yet another record high.
With the average price of a gallon of regular in the city at $3.81, drivers said they had to be strategic about where to fill up.
Ray Thomas, 30, a security guard from Brooklyn, hoped his fancy global-positioning system would direct him to the cheapest place to fuel up, but was disappointed with the $3.75 price at a station on Avenue H. So he continued looking on his own.
“This is officially the lowest price in Brooklyn,” he said, after settling on a Gulf station on Coney Island and Foster avenues that charged $3.69. According to gasbuddy.com, he may be right.
He may have only saved about a quarter after pumping three gallons, but still felt satisfied with his persistence. “I just refused to pay $3.75,” Thomas said.
One of the most expensive stations in the city was also in Brooklyn – the Exxon station at Stillwell Avenue and 86th Street, where gas was $3.95 a gallon.
“If I wasn’t that close [to empty], I wouldn’t even stop here.” said Arnold Scriggles, 29, a track inspector with the MTA, who paid $16 for just four gallons.
AAA spokesman Robert Sinclair Jr. said a gallon of regular was $3.42 a month ago and $3.09 a year ago.
“At this point, $4 a gallon gasoline is a foregone conclusion,” he said. “We set a new record every day and I am very worried.”
Marianna Powell, 41, an ice cream machine saleswoman, said gas prices have forced her to cut back on her Starbucks habit.
“My areas are Brooklyn, Queens and Long Island, so I try to make as many appointments as I can in one day to limit my mileage,” she said, after paying $3.83 a gallon to fill the tank of her SUV in Sheepshead Bay.
At the Exxon station on Second Avenue at East First Street in Manhattan, the owner said her $3.89 price had caused business to drop off by 15 percent.
“People can’t get used to that price,” she said.
The higher prices didn’t faze some customers.
“I do miss paying $4 or $5 to fill up,” said Marianne Stevenson, 49, of her two-gallon Vespa. “But this is the best – I can go two weeks for $7.50.”
Additional reporting by Peter Cox