Travelers in Illinois are starting summer road trip season with the lowest gas prices for this time of year in more than a decade.
At $2.40 per gallon, the Illinois average for regular unleaded gas was about 2 cents higher than the national average Monday but about 13 cents lower than a year ago, according to AAA numbers.
“This is the lowest start to a June we’ve had since 2005,” said Beth Mosher, a spokeswoman for AAA Chicago.
In the Chicago metro area, a gallon of regular unleaded gas cost an average of $2.52 on Monday, down 15 cents from the year before. In the city, the average price was $2.78, down 6 cents. Champaign-Urbana had the cheapest gas of all the state’s metro areas at $2.14. In the Springfield area, the average Monday for a gallon was $2.36.
Gas prices typically rise as the summer beats on, peaking around the Fourth of July, Mosher said, but prices this summer are expected to remain tame.
A concoction of low demand and generally more mild prices that have stuck around for a couple of years helped with that, Mosher said. Plus, springtime refinery issues that often hit Illinois and push up prices didn’t happen this year.
“All in all we’ve had a pretty mild spring, which is helping us ease into the summer driving season,” she said.
Average gas prices in Indiana — the “Crossroads of America” — are also down about 20 cents from a year ago. At an average of $2.33 per gallon of unleaded regular, Indiana’s gas prices on Monday were also below the national average of $2.38, according to AAA.
But don’t adjust those road trip budgets too drastically, Mosher warned. The story is not the same in every state.
“(It) depends on where they’re going,” she said.
