For weeks drivers have watched costs creep up at the pump, but average gas prices have stayed the same in the last week in D.C. and Maryland.
Gas sits at $4.77 per gallon on average Monday, according to GasBuddy’s survey of 122 station in the nation’s capital.
The average price in Maryland didn’t change in the last week either — $4.45 a gallon. The average price cost stayed the same in Baltimore and Hagerstown as well.
Prices are considered steady when they go up or down by less than 0.5 cents, according to GasBuddy’s site.
Steady or not, that cost is still painfully high to some when compared to the last month, year and decade.
Prices per gallon in D.C. are 52.4 cents higher than a month ago, $1.70 higher than a year ago and nearly a dollar more than a 10 years ago.
| Historical price on May 16 | D.C. gas price per gallon | National gas price per gallon |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | $3.06 | $3.03 |
| 2020 | $2.03 | $1.87 |
| 2019 | $2.91 | $2.86 |
| 2019 | $3.06 | $2.90 |
| 2017 | $2.52 | $2.33 |
| 2016 | $2.42 | $2.22 |
| 2015 | $2.78 | $2.70 |
| 2014 | $3.84 | $3.65 |
| 2013 | $3.74 | $3.60 |
| 2012 | $3.87 | $3.73 |
And it’s not expected to get cheaper anytime soon with summer travel and holidays nearing.
Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, said drivers should expect prices this week to creep closer to $5 per gallon with demand going up.
“While the increases may start to slow in the days ahead as pump prices catch up to oil, there isn’t much reason to be optimistic that we’ll see a plunge any time soon,” De Haan said in a news release.
Memorial Day weekend, warmer weather and summer driving season are all factors that De Haan said could bring up costs.
D.C. and Maryland reflect the trend in the U.S.; the national average stayed the same in the last week, averaging $4.46 based off GasBuddy data from 150,000 gas stations.
Meanwhile, the national price of diesel has gone up 3 cents nationally to $5.55 per gallon.
The pattern of steading cost doesn’t apply to Virginia. The average price of gas in Virginia last week was $4.24 and it went up 7 cents to $4.31.
