RIVERSIDE — Gasoline prices in Riverside have taken a tumble in the past week, falling 6.3 cents per gallon and averaging $3.58 per gallon Sunday, according to GasBuddy’s daily survey of 481 stations in Riverside.

This compares with the national average that has taken a tumble of 5.6 cents per gallon versus last week to $2.62 per gallon, according to GasBuddy.

Average gasoline prices on Nov. 18 in Riverside have ranged widely over the last five years taking a tumble every now and then: $3.19 per gallon in 2017, $2.72 per gallon in 2016, $2.79 per gallon in 2015, $3.11 per gallon in 2014 and $3.53 per gallon in 2013.

Including the change locally during the past week, prices yesterday were 38.9 cents per gallon higher than a year ago and are 20.4 cents per gallon lower than a month ago. The national average has dropped 24.1 cents per gallon during the last month and stands 7.5 cents per gallon higher than a year ago.

Areas near Riverside and their current gas price climate:

  • San Bernardino — $3.58 per gallon, down 7.0 cents per gallon from last week’s $3.65 per gallon.
  • Orange County — $3.62 per gallon, down 5.3 cents per gallon from last week’s $3.67 per gallon.
  • Los Angeles — $3.67 per gallon, a tumble of 5.4 cents per gallon from last week’s $3.72 per gallon.

The tumble in fuel prices comes as an estimated 54.3 million Americans will travel 50 miles or more away from home this Thanksgiving, a 4.8 percent increase over last year, vastly increasing traffic on roadways in the skies, according to AAA projections.

The 2018 holiday weekend will see the highest Thanksgiving travel volume in more than a dozen years (since 2005), with 2.5 million more people taking to the nation’s roads, skies, rails and waterways compared with last year. For the 48.5 million Americans planning a Thanksgiving road trip, INRIX, a global mobility analytics company, predicts travel times in the most congested cities in the U.S. could be as much as four times longer than a normal trip due to the high volume of traffic.

The Thanksgiving holiday period is defined as Wednesday, Nov. 21 to Sunday, Nov. 25.

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