ITEM FILE PHOTO
BY THOMAS GRILLO
LYNN — A record number of motorists are expected to hit the road on the July 4th weekend thanks to the lowest gas prices in more than a decade, according to AAA.
Nearly 43 million Americans will travel this Independence Day weekend, 1.1 million of those travelers are from the Bay State.
This represents the highest Fourth of July travel volume on record and five million more travelers compared to Memorial Day weekend.
“Spurred by the lowest gas prices since 2005, more people than ever are planning to travel this Independence Day weekend,” said Mary Maguire, AAA Northeast spokeswoman. “Whether they’re traveling by car, plane, train or cruise ship, it will be exciting to see so many Americans celebrating our nation’s freedom with friends and family over the long holiday weekend.”
At the Shell Station on the Lynnway, Paul Millerian of Lynn was filling up his 2015 Honda Pilot Thursday as he prepared for a family trip to Cape Cod.
“These low gas prices make it a lot more affordable to get away,” he said. “But in February, I was paying $1.75 a gallon and hoped they would drop to under $1 by now.”
U.S. drivers have saved about $20 billion on gasoline for the first half of the year compared to the same period in 2015. Rising consumer confidence and economic activity is offsetting a cooling labor market to help boost holiday travel.
“This year could be a record breaking year for summertime travel,” Maguire said. “This trend is welcome news for the travel industry and a sign that Americans are taking to our nation’s highways and skies like never before.”
As travelers fill up for travel, gasoline prices in Massachusetts rose one cent this week, AAA said.
The association’s June 27 survey of prices in Massachusetts found self-serve, regular averaging $2.25 per gallon, one cent more than a week ago.
Still, the Massachusetts price is six cents below the national average for regular of $2.31. A year ago, the average price in Massachusetts was 49 cents higher at $2.74.
Maguire predicted that gas prices should remain flat for a while.
“There was only a one-cent increase in the average price in the face of one of the biggest driving weekends of the year,” she said. “And even with the Brexit referendum, oil prices settled 5 percent lower last week after Britain’s vote to leave the European Union.”
The range in prices in the latest BostonGasPrices.com survey for regular is 16 cents, from a low of $2.23 at Prime Energy on Walnut and Cliff streets to a high of $2.39 at Gibbs at Western Avenue and Chestnut Street.
Thomas Grillo can be reached at [email protected].
