Not Sitting Idle: Seal Beach Drivers Shopping Around For Gas

SEAL BEACH, CA — Drivers across Orange County are feeling pain at the pump. Traffic, SIGALERTS and planning road trips add to that concern as inflation and cost of fuel dig into the majority of family budgets pre-holiday season.

Take into account Wednesday morning for drivers in Laguna Beach. Laguna Canyon Road was at a dead stop due to a traffic collision. Cars in and outbound of Laguna Beach idled for at least a half-hour as they waited for crews to clean up disabled vehicles and watched the gas tanks empty a bit at a time.

Elsewhere, as in Mission Viejo, electric car owners had another set of problems. Teslas line up for the charging stations at the Mission Viejo Mall, awaiting open outlets at an average wait of 30 minutes a car.

"It's pretty fast to charge, maybe 20 or 30 minutes," Tesla driver Bradley Schwartz told Patch. That charging most likely comes with a fee attached. "Sometimes, the cars are sold with free charging. Other times, you have to pay," he said. Depending on battery degradation, those prices for topping up your battery will cost between $20 and $30 for a 250-mile range.

The majority of Orange County drivers have yet to make the electric car switch, even with the high price of gasoline. Many drivers in Seal Beach, Los Alamitos and across Orange County are now comparison shopping for gas, many using apps like GasBuddy.com or filling up at membership centers like Costco, to get the at a cheaper price.

According to the AAA and Oil and Gas Price Information service, the Orange County average price has recorded its most significant daily increase since Feb. 19. Gas prices per gallon of regular, unleaded gasoline have risen 3.5 cents to $4.591, its highest amount since Oct. 16, 2012.

The cost of regular self-serve gasoline in Orange County is 4.4 cents more than one week ago, 18.8 cents higher than one month ago and $1.472 greater than one year ago.

In Laguna Beach, the 7-Eleven on Pacific Coast Highway sells regular unleaded at $4.69 per gallon. The cheapest gas in North Orange County, we have seen thanks to our friends at GasBuddy.com, is sold at the Fountain Valley Costco at $4.05 per gallon of regular unleaded.

The cheapest gas in South Orange County was in Laguna Woods at the Moulton Parkway Auto Spa, at $4.19 per gallon of regular unleaded.

Did you find cheaper gas on Thursday? Let us know.

How much is too much to fill up? And when will it stop going up? That's what drivers in Orange County want to know.