The familiar “start your engines” summons that will be heard at the famed Indianapolis Brickyard and the Charlotte Motor Speedway in North Carolina this weekend not only signals the beginnings for two historic and lengthy automobile racing events, but it also marks myriad Memorial Day festivities and the launching of America’s summer driving season.
The special remembrance was originally known as Decoration Day when it began as a way to honor soldiers who had fallen in the Civil War. The current name of Memorial Day came into use after World War II when it became a national day of tribute. Since 1971, the holiday has been observed on the last Monday in May.
Although many communities still hold special parades and celebrations to salute the fallen, the Memorial Day weekend has essentially morphed into a time of family gatherings, picnics, and sporting events. In addition, because Memorial Day nearly coincides with the traditional closing of public schools and the scheduling of family vacations, the weekend has traditionally become the summer driving season’s starting point, even though the season technically extends from April through early September.
In recent years, the number of motorists on the highways during the summer has been impacted by economic conditions and fuel prices. The more troubling and less stable the economy and the higher the costs for gasoline, the less travelers venture away from their home surroundings. This year, as in the past, those same factors are expected to come into play, but this time, they will likely be positive influences in determining driving patterns.
The debt problems that are near the top of the agenda of many European nations have played a role in undermining confidence in the general global economic strength. As a result, expectations for worldwide energy demand have been lowered, albeit probably only temporarily, thus freeing up potential supplies.
US inventories of gasoline have been rising lately and, at the beginning of May, the nation’s oil storage levels were 5% more than at this time in 2009. Moreover, the output of refineries has been increasing faster than the demand during the domestic recovery phase.
Political unrest in oil producing countries always has the potential to unsteady supplies, but currently the problems in those areas have been significantly muted, and violence and tensions in the oil rich areas of the Middle East, Africa, and South America are less intense and more infrequent than at times in the recent past.
Even the major oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, while certainly a critical environmental situation and a political nightmare, is not affecting fuel prices since it is having such a slight effect on petroleum production at this point (expectations about future policy directions could alter this market response down the road).
With most of the potential impediments to production and prices greatly lessened and with desires for traveling having been pent-up to a great degree over the past two years, the AAA Travel Club predicts more motorists will be on the road this weekend and the rest of the summer than seen in the recent past. The latest patterns in consumer confidence are also improving.
There still may be a pinch at the pumps in some areas of the country, but with refinery production in excess of demand, the average price for fuel is anticipated to remain well below the $3 per gallon level that was so rampant just a couple of years ago.
Thus, we have reached a time when, as Texas icon Willie Nelson would croon, America will be “on the road again.” Since summer travel dramatically affects so many sectors in a positive way, that’s good news for our economy.