KELO News Poll: Gas Prices

Rising gas prices are hitting KELOLAND families in the wallet.

Many people say they're staying home more and scaling back spending to try and make ends meet.
We conducted an online survey about the economy and found many families are struggling right now and are going to have to make some tough decisions in the days ahead. 

What concerns people the most right now about the sluggish economy? 

"Just being able to afford it all, right now it's outrageous gas prices especially," said Kristie Reed. 

And that's what a lot of people are saying. According to our KELOLAND News online survey, 43% say high gas prices are impacting their families finances more than anything else, including buying groceries or paying utility bills. 

So some people are buying more fuel efficient cars. 

"What we found is that when the gas goes up sharply, people do come in and trade out for gas mileage specifically for that," said Kirk Davis, sales manager at Billion Toyota Automotive. 

According to our survey, 43% are considering changing to a more fuel efficient vehicle.
Like the Hybrid that can get more than 30 miles to the gallon. 

"They hope within in the next year or two to make it optional in all the vehicles, because they figured out how to make different engines work with the electric engine, so you have a gas engine and electric engine working together and that's how you save some of your fuel economy," said Davis. 

Those high gas prices could affect how you use your time off of work this summer. 

66% of you said high gas prices are impacting your summer travel plans.
36% said you plan on staying closer to home while 25% won't even take a vacation this year.