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Memorial Travel: Gas Prices Hit $3 For Metro-Detroit Drivers

(CBS DETROIT) – We're days away from the unofficial start of summer and this year AAA is expecting over one million drivers on the roads.

"We would definitely expect prices to you know move up as everyone is heading into the busy Memorial Day travel weekend," said AAA of Michigan Spokeswoman Adrienne Woodland.

With holiday travel up 60 percent from last year this year's family road trip just got a little bit more expensive in gas alone.

"The average in the state of Michigan the average is $2.95 a gallon and that's actually up two cents compared to (Monday). So, in Metro-Detroit the price is actually $3.01 a gallon," said Woodland.

Earlier this month a shortage in gas along the eastern shore skipped the mid-west, but we didn't miss the jump in prices.

"Essentially what was happening with the colonial pipeline that was hacked, you know had the cyber-attack what was happening is that pipeline primarily service the eastern and south-eastern part of the country, so Michigan was not really receiving the majority of our gas directly from that pipeline," said Woodland.

Now industry insiders from AAA told CW50/ CBS 62's Cryss Walker that there wasn't necessarily a gas shortage in Michigan, but the fear of falling low on fuel created a panic buy, driving up the demand and the prices at the pump.

"So they heard what was happening in other states, they saw it. They ran out to gas stations you know to top off their vehicles and that panic buying is what was creating some issues," said Woodland.

Today consumers are starting to pay pre-pandemic prices to fill up.

Metro-Detroit drivers haven't seen averages near three dollars since October 2018.

"In terms of higher gas prices many, Americans are eager to travel. You know you've got pent-up travel demand and you know we don't expect higher gas prices to slow down people who plan to travel," said Woodland.

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