Last week we launched our Gas Slider, which allows you to discover how rising gas prices can affect the cost of transportation where you live. Over the next few months, we’re going to look at how communities across the country are coping with the rising cost of gas, and how choices in where and how you live determine how much you spend getting around. (Plus—this news is just too good to leave to the end of the post—use the code ‘ABOGO’ when you sign-up with I-GO Car Sharing to get $50 off the sign-up fee and $10 worth of credit!)

We decided to start in the city with the highest gas prices—and were unpleasantly surprised to find them right here at home in Chicago! As of Monday, April 25, the average cost of gas in Chicago is $4.25 a gallon, according to the US Energy Information Agency. That’s 50 cents higher than the corresponding week in 2008, the last time gas prices shot up and sent everyone scrambling for CTA passes.

How are rising gas prices affecting the typical Chicago household?

For those living in walkable, transit connected areas, the price of gas has less of an impact. Take Lakeview: for a typical Chicago family living at Roscoe & Lakewood, transportation would cost $761 a month, a 19% increase over 2000. By having the option to substitute walking, biking, transit, and car sharing when they might otherwise get in their own vehicle, families living in this neighborhood can keep their budget under control.

Now let’s look at the other extreme. Channel Lake is a far, far northern suburb. While you can enjoy the near-by Chain O’ Lakes Sate Park, the cost of transportation is going to take a significant chunk out of a household’s budget. At $4.25 a gallon, transportation is going to cost a typical household over $1300 per month—a whopping 29% increase over 2000 costs. Instability and unpredictability in how much a household spends on transportation can make it hard to make ends meet—like paying for that mortgage!

Now we know not everyone’s going to pack up and move in to the middle of the city. So let’s look at some suburbs that, while not sprouting sky scrapers like the Loop, have a walkable feel, access to transit, and allow residents to get out of the car! Take Bellwood, a Cook County suburb. That same typical family would spend $974 a month on transportation, a modest 19% increase over 2000 costs. While they’re feeling the pinch, they have the transportation options needed to get of the car—and out of the gas line.

What can Chicagoans do to avoid feeling the crunch?

• Take transit where possible and make sure their employers have signed up for pre-tax transit benefits. Pre-tax transit benefits are an underutilized “use it or lose it” federal tax break administered through employers. Employees can save up to 40 percent on their commuting costs by buying transit fare before paying taxes. In Chicago, Cook County employers currently can receive up to $1,700 for simply enrolling their employees into the program. Check out http://lesstaxingcommute.com/

• Curb your car and sign up for I-GO car sharing [link]. Americans spend an annual average of $8,776 to own, operate, and maintain their cars, according to the AAA. A typical member of I-GO ^® Car Sharing spends roughly $2,520 per year on transportation. Car sharing gets people where they need to go without worrying about gas prices. Members pay for cars by the hour, and gas is included in the hourly fee (as is insurance), so no need to worry about its price. I-GO has cars that are gas sippers, and it will soon add 30+ electric cars to our fleet that don’t use gasoline at all. There are 10 other nonprofit car-sharing organizations across the country.

We feel so strongly that everyone reading this post should sign up for I-GO that we walked downstairs (they’re an affiliate of CNT) and asked for a special deal for you! Use Code ‘ABOGO’ when you sign up with I-GO and you’ll pay just $25 to sign up (saving $50) and get $10 in driving credit. Try it for a year, and re-sign for just $25! Sign-up today.

How are gas prices affecting your cost of transportation? What are your tips for getting out of the car? Let us know!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 27th, 2011 at 2:43 pm and is filed under Chicago, Gas Prices. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.