Record high Memorial Day gas prices are stinging consumers and

Memorial Day marks the start of the summer driving season, and already drivers are limiting their trips due to record gasoline prices that are expected to go even higher.

The national average for unleaded gasoline is now $4.599 per gallon, just below a record of $4.60. That’s also a 40% increase so far this year and well above last year’s $3.04 per gallon level, according to AAA. By the July 4 holiday, more states could see average prices above $5 a gallon, analysts say.

“I don’t think as many people are going to hit the road, and if they do, I think a good portion are going to be staying close to home,” said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy. “They’re definitely should be a noticeable bump, but my impression is people are not driving as far. The concern is high prices that are keeping people a little closer. There’s also work-from-home that changed things. There’s a strong subset of people that can basically work from the road all the time.”

The upcoming holiday weekend is expected to be the busiest for travel in two years, but driving should still be below 2019 levels. AAA expects 39.2 million people in total will travel 50 miles or more this weekend, an increase of 8.3% over last year. Of that, there are expected to be 4.6% more drivers on the road during the three day weekend, but that number is still down 7.2% from 2019.

Across the U.S., prices vary widely, with a high $6.07 per gallon average in California and $4.13 per gallon in Georgia. As high prices impact consumers, analysts say they will not fill up their vehicles as often, and that reduced demand could act to curb the pace of further price increases.

Expensive gasoline has already caused some people to cut back on driving. Government data shows consumers used about 8.8 million barrels a day of gasoline on average over the past four weeks — down from 9.1 million in the same period last year.

“That goes back to 2011, 2012 [demand] levels,” said De Haan of the government data. GasBuddy data also shows slower-than-expected demand over the last several days. For instance, drivers bought 4% more gasoline Thursday than the week earlier, but De Haan had expected that to be up 7%-10% to account for drivers expecting to travel for the holiday weekend.

“Based on that, there’s definitely demand destruction,” he said.

The national average price of a gallon of gasoline was up about 10% in May, though it was a fraction of a penny lower in the last day and flat on the last week.

According to Bespoke Investment Group, that is the-third largest increase for the month of May since 2005, and the 40% jump in prices year to date is more than twice the historical average. Gas prices were up 35% last Memorial Day from the beginning of the year, as…