Aug. 29--There are so many things worth complaining about in Chicago that you're wasting your hard-earned bile on local gas prices.
Heading into this Labor Day holiday, the so-called pain at the pump is not nearly as bad as some seem to believe.
Chicago gas prices, in fact, may very well wind up lower in the first week of September this year than they have in the first week of nearly every September over the past decade, taking inflation into account.
Honest.
No one knows exactly what the number will be. Like the weather, it changes, sometimes dramatically, as seen earlier this month. A week ahead of the holiday, GasBuddy reported the average price in Chicago on Friday afternoon was $3.12 and falling.
So, barring a surprise, the city should get off easy, and not just compared to when prices spiked to $3.47 because an Indiana refinery needed repairs a couple of weeks ago.
A good deal of what affects oil prices is determined by geopolitical, economic and business concerns, not to mention the occasional catastrophe. But when there's a bump, it's popular to dwell on all the added taxes and costs that make gas in Chicago more expensive than in surrounding communities and the national average.
Those add-ons invite knee-jerk scrutiny every time a sudden lurch makes drivers hyper-aware of what they pay to fill up. Some argue it's too much to pay. Others (and we know who we are) say the money for infrastructure repairs and other needs has to come from somewhere.
Whatever you think, extra costs for gas in Chicago have long been a constant. Anyone who's been here for even a short period of time soon accounts for them.
Maybe he or she winces while paying more or drives out of the way to pay less. Some pass the costs along to those with whom they do business. Others make up for the added expense elsewhere. Whatever.
There are also other cyclical factors that affect gas pricing too, like when the warm-weather blend sold here is changed to a formula that is supposed to better protect the environment when burned and then changed back.
So the real comparison is not to other places but to other times, or Chicago prices at a point in time to Chicago prices at the same point in time in another year, adjusting the amounts to account for inflation.
And, by that standard, only twice in the 10-year span beginning in 2005 has the average Chicago price for a gallon of regular gas in the first week of September -- including local taxes and all the rest -- been below $3.38.
That was in 2009, when Chicagoans paid what would be $2.94 per gallon in 2015 dollars, and 2010, when the regular cost was an adjusted $3.13, according to federal government figures.
Just to remind you, on Friday afternoon, GasBuddy said we were at $3.12.
Since 2010, Chicago drivers in the first week of September shelled out, again accounting for inflation, $4.22 per gallon in 2011, $4.42 in 2012, $3.90 in 2013 and $3.71 last year (adjusted up from $3.68).
Even without inflation allowances, the U.S. Energy Information Administration pegged the retail price of regular gas in Chicago for the first week of September 2005 at $3.07, $3.20 for the corresponding week in 2007 and $3.95 in 2008.
This, admittedly, is unlikely to move those who steadfastly believe Chicagoans are made to pay way too much for gas.
Drivers from the suburbs and farther afield, in particular, must be particularly upset when they belatedly realize they need to tank up in the city and pay so much more than back home.
GasBuddy's Friday estimate had Chicago's average price 28 cents above Illinois' and 62 cents more than the nation's.
But here's the funny thing: Less of what people in and around Chicago spend is on transportation expenses than the percentage for the nation as a whole, according to recent analysis by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Housing eats up a higher percentage of consumer spending in the Chicago metropolitan area than the national average. Same for apparel and services.
The average "consumer unit" in the United States spent less money overall than the local average but sank 17.5 percent of it on transportation in 2012-13. The Chicago-area figure was just 15.6 percent.
Chicago-area consumers spend only 1 percent more of their money on gas and motor oil than the average U.S. consumer. But their net outlay on vehicle purchases and other vehicle expenses is less.
People here devote a greater percentage of their spending to public transportation.
Gas prices notwithstanding, urban centers where people were found spending a markedly higher percentage overall on transportation than here include Phoenix, Minneapolis, Detroit, Cleveland, Atlanta, Baltimore and -- in the heart of Big Oil -- Dallas and Houston.
Transportation costs take up 2.3 percent more of consumer spending in and around Dallas, compared to here. In and around Houston, the category siphons off a chunk 5.4 percent larger than in and around Chicago.
Things do tend to balance out, if you look over the dashboard to notice.
So one more time: $3.12 on Friday. Not that bad.
philrosenthal@tribpub.com
