This Blog is about the price of gas and how it effects driving on the east end. Southamptonites do a lot of driving; very few actually bus or walk to buy groceries, gifts, or supplies. When gas prices charge up over $4.00 per gallon, the fill up the car tank cost always gets ones attention. Unfortunately we are there again as gas prices take aim at perhaps $5.00 per gallon like they did in 2008.
Back then I was writing for a largely circulated weekly, and I wrote a story of the weird effect high gas prices had on the summer then. I found more people visited the east end as tourist, but taking short stays, especially one day stays. Yet the restaurants were less busy, but the bars were busier. OK, weekends, well in most cases reservations for prime time dining were still very much needed, but during the week, no so much.
The year round locals fought the urge to drive less as much as they could. Driving on the east end is a ritual. Locals have their special private routes to get around. They have roads they love to drive on, roads they never drive on, and roads they always drive on. They know the mileage, time it takes, and conditions in weather of all these routes. The visitors seem to stay on Route 27 no matter what, almost as if it is still the Long Island Expressway.
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Out of town folks freak out at paying the average $.30 higher price for gas out east. Up island gas is still below $4.00. Tourists rationalize the cost by thinking its less expensive then the traditional long family drives to D.C. or Maine and New Hampshire. New Jersey people feel the sting worst with perhaps a $.60 per gallon difference. So my prediction is more people on the roads and beaches and less people spending money in the shops and restaurants, with the average amount spent per customer to be back at the summer of 2008 levels.
