American Dream

August 18, 2005
Pricing Quirk Means New Jersey's Cheapest Gas Is on Its Toll Highways
By PATRICK McGEEHAN

Quotes:

BLOOMFIELD, N.J., Aug. 17 - Glenn Fletcher hopped down from the driver's seat of his green Lincoln Navigator with a question rarely heard this summer. "Why is this gas so cheap?" he asked.

Mr. Fletcher was genuinely pleased to be paying almost $56 to fill his tank Wednesday afternoon because he recognized that the prices on the pumps on the Garden State Parkway were unusually
low. He had caught on to an anomaly that many drivers never notice: The price of gas on New Jersey's two main toll roads changes only on Fridays, usually just before the morning rush.

That rule hardly matters to most drivers, except when gas prices are exceptionally volatile, as they have been in the past week. Since Aug. 10, the average price of a gallon of regular gas in New Jersey has set a new high - unadjusted for inflation - every day, hitting $2.49 yesterday, according to AAA Mid-Atlantic.

New Jersey already has among the cheapest gas prices in the country because of its low fuel taxes. But at the eight rest areas along the Garden State Parkway, which pump Mobil gas, and the 12
that line the New Jersey Turnpike, which sell Sunoco, the price was lower still, stuck at $2.38 since Friday morning. For Mr. Fletcher, that gap amounted to a savings of more than $2.50, or 11 cents a gallon below the state average.

"I just noticed the signs and I wondered what's going on up in here in North Jersey," said Mr. Fletcher, who stopped at the Bloomfield rest area on his way home to Marlton in Burlington County. "I'm surprised the line's not backed up and causing a traffic jam."

The price is the same up and down the two toll roads, the result of the contract the New Jersey Turnpike Authority has with its fuel vendors, said Joe Orlando, a spokesman for the authority, which also runs the parkway. Those terms allow the vendors to set the price once a week, but no higher than 3 cents a gallon above the average price charged by 100 stations that are surveyed weekly. When prices are rising, drivers on the toll roads are the winners. But when prices fall, they can find themselves paying more for gas than elsewhere.

On Friday, the statewide average was $2.35 a gallon, said Tracy E. Noble, a spokeswoman for AAA Mid-Atlantic, in Hamilton, N.J. Since then, it has jumped 14 cents, or 6 percent in five days, making a fill-up on the Turnpike a bargain, she said.

"You assume when you're driving on the Parkway and the Turnpike and you have nowhere else to go, you're going to be paying higher prices," Ms. Noble said. "In the past, under normal circumstances, their prices have been higher than your average local gas station."

* Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company