Durham's gas prices: top in all of N.C. metro areas

A letter-writer complains in today's Herald-Sun that Durham has the most expensive gas in North Carolina, according to gas price tracker gasbuddy.com. And given that N.C. has the highest gas prices in the lower 48 right now -- does that in fact make Durham the most expensive place in the country to get gasoline?

Not exactly -- though it's not far from the truth. As it happens, there are a number of cities in N.C. that report gas prices as high or higher than Durham, particularly in some . Still, as of this writing, the GasBuddy web site in its list of major cities and metro areas sees Durham ($3.502) edge out Raleigh ($3.469), Charlotte $3.399) and Greensboro ($3.374) for one top-in-state ranking we don't exactly want to be at.

More expensive than the Bull City? Among the major cities tracked, only Chicago, San Francisco, and San Jose among the contiguous United States, though Honolulu and Anchorage still are top in the entire U.S.

One argument we here at BCR are sick of hearing about when it comes to gas prices: North Carolina's gas tax, the highest in the southeast. Yes, folks, we have a high gas tax. We also have the second-largest state-maintained road network in the U.S., after only the geographic behemoth of Texas.

What does that system buy us? Well, it means relatively few roads maintained by local government, which means you pay for roads in your gasoline purchase, not your property and retail sales tax. Until recently (when fuel economy variances started happening widely with hybrids and other vehicles) it's proven a seemingly fair way of implementing a use tax based on distance driven, though officials are also looking at piloting GPS-monitored history of distances driven and taxing for road use on that basis.

Comments

[Durham Bull Pen]

And yet even with gas sky-high I still see those brand new behemoth FU-Vs (yes FUVs) on the road racing up to stoplights, flooring it at greenlights, hogging up the parking spaces, and generally bullying other drivers with their size and power. Bet the letter-writer complainer has one. Just a hunch. My heart bleeds--not.

[Masshole]

Take a ride up 85 to Mebane. Gas has been running 30-40 cents less per gallon. I gassed up yesterday at $3.09 a gallon yesterday right off the highway.

Have you guys ever met a tax you didn't like?

[Tar Heelz]

How are North Carolina's high gas taxes relevant to a story about Durham having higher gas prices than the rest of North Carolina?

Is there a Durham gas tax?

[mike]

Boo Hoo get a bicycle you lazy Americans

[Bull City Rising]

@Masshole: So I assume you'd like property taxes going up to pay for roads instead? Maybe your state income tax? Or do we just wait for disappearing Federal dollars for roads?

As a fellow ex-Masshole myself, I've got to say, roads in N.C. are a hell of lot better than what we had up there. Or in Florida for that matter, or most places I've lived. Virginia has good roads, but that's been the exception in the SE. Not that there's not many things to fix in NCDOT, but still.

@TH: The relevance is that the post talks about NC having high gas prices, not just Durham. The point is that NC prices are high and Durham's are among the highest here. Consider it a pre-emptive step to avoid someone making what I consider to be a monotonous comment about how if we just lowered gas taxes, everything would be A-OK...

[Todd]

Durham already has a 50+ yeear cycle for paving its streets. It would be stupid to lower gas taxes and pass even more maintenance responsibility to local governments - Durham can't handle what it is already responsible for.

As far as the GPS-monitored distance travelled deal, that presents siginificant privacy concerns. Plus, there is a far simpler and cheaper way available to measure miles driven. Your odometer reading is recorded every year during the state safety/emissions inspection. How hard would it be to pass that information along to the appropriate agency to bill for excess milage, whatever that happens to be.

[jacob]

officials are also looking at piloting GPS-monitored history of distances driven and taxing for road use on that basis.

Could you tell us more about that, please, because it sounds extremely scary. Is the idea that all our cars would be monitored with GPS devices (read tracking devices) so that government could monitor how much we drove and, conveniently, know where we went? This is a terrible, terrible idea.