If You’re Hitting the Road this Weekend, You’ll Like the Gas Prices

If you're planning on doing some driving over Labor Day weekend, it's kind of a good news/bad news scenario. Prices are a little up from a month ago, but they're considerably lower than they were last year at this time.

Here's what AAA Chicago has to say:

After dropping for two months, pump prices are again on the rise in Illinois and northern Indiana heading into Labor Day weekend. Illinois prices are averaging $2.33, an increase from $2.15 a month ago but still down considerable from $2.73 a year ago. Indiana drivers are paying on average $2.27, up from $2.11 a month ago but still nearly $.20 lower than a year ago.

“The Midwest faced some refinery issues this past month which drove prices higher, especially in the Chicago metro region and in Indiana.” said Beth Mosher, director of public affairs for AAA – The Auto Club Group, “As these issues have now been fixed, drivers should start to see prices come back down again as we head into the fall season.”

In August in Illinois, gas prices averaged $2.25, which was down $.01 from July and $.60 less than a year ago. In northern Indiana, gas prices averaged $2.19 in August, which was up $.06 from July and down $.62 from August 2015.

Closer to home here in Winnebago County, self-serve regular unleaded gasoline averages $2.13 per gallon, a decrease of $.09 from July and $.64 lower than August 2015.

In case you're too busy to take that big road trip, here's a time-lapse look at a coast-to-coast trip of 9500 miles: