Taking a road trip? Gas prices lowest they’ve been in 12 years

Now’s the time for a road trip.

Gas prices across the nation are the lowest they have been in 12 years, according to the auto club AAA.

Sunday’s national average price of $2.12 is 24 cents above the average price 12 years ago, but 50 cents less than it was a year ago and $1.36 less than it was two years ago.

“Gas prices across most of the country continue to slide during the peak road-trip season due to abundant supplies,” AAA spokesman Mark Jenkins said in a news release. “With gasoline supplies high and oil prices low, pump prices are likely to remain relatively cheap through the remainder of the summer and into the fall.”

In the Miami area, gas prices dropped 2.4 cents a gallon in the past week. Gas prices averaged $2.22 a gallon on Sunday, according to a survey of nearly 1,700 Miami area station by GasBuddy.com. That’s more than 36 cents lower than the same day a year ago.

Gregg Laskoski, senior petrolium analyst with GasBuddy.com, said Miami, West Palm Beach and Naples have the highest prices in the state. Laskowski said there were several factors that could play into the higher prices: The distance the gas has to travel to get to there, additional local taxes that other municipalities don’t have and the fact that they are major tourist destinations.

Another reason: the spread (or gap between the highest and lowest prices in the same area) is the largest, which brings up the average. In Miami, the average daily spread last year was 56 cents. In Tampa, where the average per gallon is $1.95 as of Sunday, the average daily spread last year was 29 cents, according to GasBuddy.com.

Florida’s average gas price — which has declined for 61 consecutive days — is $2.05, a 42-cent difference from less than a year ago, according to AAA.

Despite the low gas prices, AAA warns that “unexpected events could trigger higher prices.”

This story was originally published August 7, 2016 at 10:39 PM with the headline "Taking a road trip? Gas prices lowest they’ve been in 12 years."