VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Gas prices typically jump when we’re heading into a holiday weekend, right? It hasn’t happened so far, and one industry analyst isn’t surprised.
Michael Ervin says that assumption is apparently just a myth.
He adds prices don’t change before a long weekend any more than they do any other weekend, adding those were the results of a study his company did several years ago.
“In fact, long weekends in the fall, such as Labour Day long weekend, we typically see pump prices going down, not because it’s a long weekend, but because at that time of the year, we see a general trend towards lower pump prices.”
He adds any increase we see is from the general trend of prices going up in the spring and Ervin uses the May long weekend, which isn’t observed in the US, as an example.
“Often times, the pump price has gone up before the May long weekend, but surprising enough, in the United States, it typically has gone up that same weekend as well.”
There is some good news if you’re planning to take a road trip over the next couple of months, Ervin isn’t expecting prices to climb much more unless the cost of a barrel of oil spikes.
“Actually I don’t think we’re going to see much more of an upward trend in fuel prices now. We’ve already seen the pre-seasonal trend pretty much run its course.”
The average price across the Lower Mainland is about $1.20 a litre, while the average price across the country is $1.09, according to GasBuddy.com.