Gas Prices Ease Up On Peninsula

There is good news for San Mateo residents planning to hit the road this Memorial Day weekend: Gas prices appear to be coming down.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration’s weekly survey, released earlier this week, reveals California prices dropped nearly 10 cents in the past week to an average of $4.12, and those price drops are reflected on the Peninsula.

What’s also reflected on the Peninsula, however, is a wide range of prices from town and town and station to station—making it hard for motorists to figure out where to go.

A look at prices, as listed on the website gasbuddy.com, shows that Millbrae’s are higher than in any other nearby town. Meanwhile, Foster City is among the higher prices on the Peninsula, at $4.15 a gallon.

On Wednesday, a Chevron station on Millbrae Avenue near Rollins Road was offering regular gas at $4.27 a gallon. That’s 28 cents more than in Pacifica, where regular gas at the Alliance Station on Hwy 1 at Reina del Mar Avenue was selling for $3.99.

In the “less than the most expensive” category, along with Pacifica’s Alliance station, are the Costco on Middlefield Road in Redwood City at $3.89 a gallon; a Valero station on Marsh Road near Fair Oaks Avenue in Menlo Park at $3.93; the traditionally low-priced San Mateo Arco station on Delaware Avenue at Highway 92 at $3.95 a gallon; two stations in San Bruno, a Union 76 on San Mateo Avenue at El Camino Real and an Arco station on El Camino at Santa Lucia; and the Interstate Gas station on Kelly Avenue in Half Moon Bay – each of the latter weighing it at $3.99.

On the “more expensive than most” side, Millbrae’s price at $4.27 leads the pack, but not far behind are a $4.21 per gallon posting at the Union 76 station on Ralston Avenue at Old Country Road in Belmont, a Shell station on the El Camino at Brittan Avenue in San Carlos at $4.19 per gallon, and the Arco on East Hillsdale Blvd at Edgewater in Foster City at $4.15 per gallon.

Smack in the middle of the pack are prices in Burlingame, $4.09 at the Valero station on Broadway at Rollins; and South San Francisco, where Kwik Serve and Olympian stations on El Camino Real charge you $4.03 for a gallon of go.

The cheapest California gas prices are found in the North Bay, with stations in Vallejo charging $3.75 per gallon of regular gas.

Traveling to a nearby state this weekend? Gas prices in Oregon average $3.90 per gallon; in Nevada, $3.80 on average; in Arizona, gas is a relative steal, averaging $3.66 per gallon of gas.

The highest prices in the nation? Hawaii, at $4.31 a gallon. The lowest? In Greenville, South Carolina, gas prices average $3.52 per gallon.

For perspective, the average price of a gallon of gas sold in California in the first week of December 2008 was $1.81.