Pittsburgh gas prices climb to nearly $5 a gallon as costs rise across region
Gas across the country continues to climb. The AAA average for Pittsburgh is about $4.91 for a gallon of regular. It's no secret that it's usually best to fill up in Ohio or West Virginia before coming back to the area, but what about now?
While that's still cheaper in West Virginia than in Pennsylvania, AAA puts West Virginia at $4.39. While it may not be beneficial to everyone in the Pittsburgh area to jump across state lines to fill up, for people who live near it, there is some marginal relief in West Virginia. Parts of eastern Ohio are the same or more than counties like Washington, Beaver, Greene, and Lawrence.
"They're pretty steep right now, it seems like," said Jarod Shelby, who was traveling to Pennsylvania for work from Arkansas.
KDKA-TV ran into a couple of people who drove between the deep South and here. The only relief they had was down there.
"It seems like they're up all the way from Arkansas to here, really, and everywhere in between," Shelby said.
A truck driver who said $1,000 at the pump used to get him pretty far, but now it's not even getting his tank full.
"It's horrible. I feel sorry for the older people and the single mothers. It's crazy," Kirk Diehl said at a Weirton gas station.
"I was just in Morgantown, and I think it was close to $5," Carrie Rock of West Virginia said while filling up her pump.
While the Pittsburgh region is used to paying higher prices, some in the tri-state area are being hit hard. Rock is currently not working and cutting back on expenses as gas and other costs skyrocket.
"I don't even have cable anymore. It's just the internet and cell phones. Even food you have to cut back on," she said.
AAA said prices in West Virginia at this time last year were $3.02. That's roughly a 45% increase in a year. When you do the percentages on neighboring Ohio, it's a 57% increase from last year. Pennsylvania's increase was the lowest of the three at 42%.
