Thanksgiving travel will cost more time and money

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Americans traveling during the Thanksgiving weekend will have to pay more if they're driving and, probably, encounter more delays if they fly.

Motorists will be paying the highest gasoline pump prices since the summer -- an average of $3.262 a gallon for regular on Long Island in a survey done Monday for the American Automobile Association.

That's almost 92 cents higher than a year earlier and just 8.5 cents short of the Long Island record average in the survey, which was $3.347 for regular, set Sept. 11, 2005 after Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf coast.

The only good news is that the average is up just 1.2 cents from Thursday, suggesting that the current runup in prices has slowed. Andy Lipow, president of the Houston consulting company Lipow Oil Associates, said he thinks prices will remain at this level through the holiday season. "Barring any kind of a big geopolitical event, at least for the next few weeks I think gasoline prices are going to stabilize," he said.

Upstate-bound motorists will find prices about the same as here -- $3.249 was Monday's average for the Albany area, for example, according to the AAA. It's the same for those headed to Connecticut; that state's average for regular was $3.220 Monday -- $3.284 in the Bridgeport area.

But those headed for New Jersey, where taxes on fuel are lower, will find what passes for bargains nowadays. The Garden State's average for regular was $2.919 a gallon Monday -- $2.941 for the Bergen-Passaic area just over the Washington Bridge.