ABC7 Chicago is now streaming 24\/7. Click here to watch<\/a><\/p>\nWith gas prices soaring, some people are feeling pain at the pump. Brick layer Aaron Duggins is one of them.<\/p>\n
“Oh yeah, they’re killing me, killing me. I’ve got to get off to work now. Have a good morning,” Duggins said.<\/p>\n
Triple A says the average price for a gallon of regular unleaded gas in Chicago is hovering around $5.17.<\/p>\n
At one gas station in the city’s South Loop neighborhood, it’s even higher than that. Northwestern Hospital employee Jackie Torres says she has gone from spending $70 to fill up her SUV to closer to $100.<\/p>\n
“It’s just ridiculous, almost $7, and I do put premium, so it’s just, yeah, I’m about to put my baby in a scooter and we’re going to go to work like that,” Torres said.<\/p>\n
According to GasBuddy, the average prices nationwide are at their highest level in nearly four years. In the city, drivers have seen prices climb $0.47 in just the past week.<\/p>\n
Some analysts say a weekend power loss at BP’s Whiting, Indiana refinery, along with the war in Iran keeping shipping lanes closed, are only making things worse.<\/p>\n
And people like David Adenekan, who drive to make their living, are having a rough time. The veteran cabbie says his fuel costs have doubled.<\/p>\n
“You have to work more, work more time to pay bills, pay the lease,” Adenekan said.<\/p>\n
So, with everyone looking to save money, experts offer these tips:
<\/p>\n
Avoid hard acceleration and braking. Drivers use more fuel the harder they accelerate.
Sign up for loyalty programs.
And stay on top of car maintenance, especially tire pressure. Low tire pressure can actually make the engine work harder and burn more gas.<\/p>\n
The increases come with the Memorial Day travel weekend just weeks away and as Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker resists calls to suspend the gas tax increase that takes effect this summer. It is very little concern to one man whose only reason to be at the gas station is to put air in the tires of his electric car.<\/p>\n
“It’s very, very, very great as far as like saving on gas, for sure,” he said.<\/p>\n
Copyright \u00a9 2026 WLS-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHICAGO (WLS) — If you are heading out to get gas on Friday, you will have to pay…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":420523,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[198044,198028,114,198029,184,183326,174864,30422,198043,198042,198032,198031,118230,198034,85,198038,198036,117780,46,49660,6807,198039,198033,198027,198041,198035,198030,198040,198037],"class_list":["post-420522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-198044","tag-are-gas-prices-going-to-go-down","tag-business","tag-cheapest-gas-station-near-me","tag-economy","tag-gas-near-me","tag-gas-price","tag-gas-prices","tag-gas-prices-illinois","tag-gas-prices-in-illinois","tag-gas-prices-near-me","tag-gas-prices-today","tag-gas-station","tag-highest-gas-prices-in-the-us","tag-il","tag-illinois-gas-tax","tag-illinois-gas-tax-increase","tag-iran-war","tag-israel","tag-oil-price","tag-oil-prices","tag-why-are-gas-prices-so-high","tag-why-are-gas-prices-so-high-in-indiana","tag-why-did-gas-go-up-so-much-today","tag-why-is-gas-so-expensive","tag-why-is-gas-so-high-in-illinois","tag-why-is-gas-so-high-in-indiana","tag-why-is-gas-so-high-right-now","tag-will-gas-prices-go-down-soon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=420522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420522\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/420523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=420522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=420522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=420522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}