The first long holiday weekend since California lifted coronavirus-linked restrictions is here, but those eager to hit the road are facing the Bay Area’s highest gasoline prices in seven years.

“It’s ridiculous how high the gas prices are right now,” Priscilla Tovar said as she filled up her car on McKee Road in San Jose. “The prices have been rising a lot all year.”

Bay Area prices for a gallon of unleaded gasoline averaged $4.38 on Thursday. That’s up nearly 23% from the New Year’s Day price of $3.56 a gallon, according to information compiled from the GasBuddy site.

“The gas prices are a bummer,” said Josh Cooney, a Hayward resident who was pumping gas at a Fremont station after returning from a week-long vacation trip. “It’s $15 to $20 more to fill up my car than it used to be.”

The cost of gasoline in the Bay Area, as measured by a U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics official survey of the price of unleaded gasoline, is the highest it’s been since July 2014.

The holiday weekend represents a chance for people to get behind the wheel or hop on a plane for long-overdue getaways after 15 months of wide-ranging restrictions on business activities and travel.

“Cabin fever has never been higher,” said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis with GasBuddy, which tracks real-time gasoline and fuel prices. “Americans are making up for lost time.”

Sergio Avila, a spokesperson for AAA Northern California, says the main factors in the rising prices are “confidence in the worldwide vaccination rollout, global oil demand spikes, and the easing of travel restrictions leading to optimism about leisure travel.”

The pain at the pump is all the more shocking because of where prices were when travel stopped and many people stayed home to help stop the spread of COVID-19. In late April of last year, prices in Bay Area were around $2.84 a gallon. Now they are $1.54 a gallon higher.

Similarly, average prices for unleaded gasoline in the nine-county region’s three largest cities have jumped in a big way during the first half of 2021, according to GasBuddy.

— San Jose gasoline prices, now averaging $4.36 a gallon, were $3.92 at the start of the year.

— Oakland gas prices, now $4.35, have soared from $3.35.

— San Francisco gas prices of $4.43 a gallon have rocketed up from $3.42 on New Year’s Day.

Gasoline prices, among the lowest in the Bay Area, are displayed on a sign at Moe’s Stop gas station on McKee Road in San Jose, July 1, 2021.  (Doug Duran/Bay Area News Group) 

Still, it’s possible to find inexpensive gasoline. For years, a stretch of San Jose’s McKee road just off U.S. Highway 101 has been home to some of the cheapest gas stations in town, other than a few Safeway gas stations where people can rack up big savings through rewards discounts.

Thursday morning, Moe’s Stop and Gas & Shop, two stations across the street from each other on McKee Road at North 33rd Street, were selling unleaded fuel for about 3.79 to $3.80 a gallon. The stations have been locked in a price war for years, whether gas costs are low, high or in-between.

Some motorists say they may change the type of vehicle they drive because of the sky-high prices.

“The gas prices are crazy right now,” said Noel Lua, a Modesto resident who was filling up at a Fremont station. “The other day it cost me $5.22 a gallon, which is the highest I’ve ever paid.”

Lua had just gotten off work at the vast Tesla electric vehicle factory and was preparing to make the trek home, easily a 90-minute to two-hour trip.

“I’m definitely thinking of switching to an electric car,” she said.

Customers seeking some of the lowest gasoline prices in the Bay Area line up for an open pump at Gas & Shop on McKee Road in San Jose. // Doug Duran/Bay Area News Group
Near-term relief from the soaring gasoline prices isn’t in the cards any time soon, experts say.

“Demand will stay high because people want to get out and drive,” GasBuddy analyst De Haan said.

And that frenzied demand will add plenty of propellant for the already brutal cost of gasoline.

“Drivers should get used to higher gas prices,” AAA spokesperson Avila said. “We expect them to continue to rise through most of the summer months.”