(The Center Square) – Traveling through Indiana this Fourth of July holiday will cost less compared to last year’s record prices. However, there are significant differences in the average price of regular unleaded from one end of the state to another.
According to AAA, drivers in Indiana were paying an average of $3.348 a gallon on Monday. That’s down from $3.458 from the week before.
This time last year, it cost, on average, $4.893 a gallon in Indiana. The drop in price means it will cost nearly $25 less ($78.288 to $53.568) to fill up a 16-gallon tank in Indiana.
Despite the significant drop from last year, drivers nationally are still paying more to fill up than they did in recent years, even before the pandemic. The national average on Monday was $3.535. For the week ending July 1, 2019, the average retail price for gas was $2.713, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
“The previous [national] record average high price for gas on July 4th [before last year] was $4.10 in 2008, while the low was $1.39 in 2001,” AAA spokesperson Andrew Gross said in a statement. “Yet despite currently elevated prices, drivers are not cutting back on travel this summer.”
AAA expects more than 50 million people to travel for the holiday, with more than 86% of those travelers forecasted to do so by car. Indiana, where the state motto is “Crossroads of America,” is often a pass-through state for upper midwesterners traveling south or southerners heading north for the Great Lakes.
While Indiana’s state average price is nearly 19 cents cheaper than the national average, drivers along the Interstate 65 corridor will see a lot of fluctuation based on location.
Scott County, a Southern Indiana county just 30 miles north of Louisville, has the state’s second-lowest average price at $3.098 per gallon. That’s 12% lower than the average price of $3.519 found in Clark County, Scott County’s southern neighbor.
At the other end of the state and I-65, Lake County has the highest prices, with an average of $3.733 per gallon.
Indiana finds itself in the middle among its neighboring states price-wise. Kentucky drivers are paying $3.254 per gallon, and Ohioans have an average price of $3.291.
The gas price is nearly 20 cents per gallon more expensive in Michigan ($3.534) than in Indiana and nearly 55 cents more in Illinois ($3.897).
