SYRACUSE -- With gas selling for close to four dollars a gallon filling up at the pump is becoming a painful experience for many Central New Yorkers.
Jim Montanaro, of Liverpool, says the high gas prices have forced him to change his driving habbits.
"I'm driving a lot less number one, number two I'm probably driving around the speed limit and not going any faster to try and save fuel. If you go a little bit slower, going 72 miles per hour instead of 68, you are probably going to save a couple of bucks a wee and that can add up," he says.
Gas prices are on the rise across the country. In Chicago motorists are now paying four dollars and twenty seven cents a gallon. In syracuse the average cost of a gallon of regular unleaded is $3.97 cents a gallon, almost a dollar more than Central New Yorkers were paying for a gallon of gas a year ago.
Chad Roberts, of Utica, is cutting back on the amount of trips he takes. He's also thinking about alternative fuels to gas.
"I'm hoping when the new technology comes in will start driving electric cars, more fuel efficient cars," he says.
The forecast for gas prices is not good. Analysts say a bad hurricane season could impact oil production in the Gulf of Mexico, and if that happens they say the price of gas could rise to six dollars a gallon.
