As gas prices sky rocket, some Ball State University students have a hard time keeping up.
Leigh Tanner, a senior education major, said gas prices are a major concern for her as she plans her weekends.
"I think of how much it will cost if I go somewhere," Tanner said. "It was not a big deal before."
Tanner said she used public transportation for traveling around Muncie, but the challenge comes when she plans to visit her family.
"I haven't visited my family since Spring Break," Tanner said. "I don't know when I will be able to go home."
A gallon of unleaded gas would cost around $3 last fall, but now prices are at about $4 or sometimes more to make an approximately 25-mile trip.
Ball State student Kristi Lee travels 40 miles every day to attend class and said trips outside Muncie cost a fortune are traveling around campus or the Muncie area, however, trips outside Muncie cost a fortune.
"It really affects my life," Lee said. "The money I pay to buy gas could be used for my other needs."
Lee said she pays $10 every day to come to classes.
It is not only students who are affected by gas prices. Muncie Indiana Transit System reported the number of riders had significantly increased during the past months.
Marry Gaston, assistant general manager at MITS, said the bus company was struggling with its budget because of increasing gas prices.
"We are not planning to add more routes," Gaston said. "We are not planning to increase ride fare."
Paul Chandler, an associate professor of Natural Resources and Environmental Management, said oil was not even nearly depleted from the world as some have said.
"Growing population [and] growing demand in the developing nations like China, India and Brazil; speculative international commodity bidding to ensure future oil supplies were some of the causes of gas price increases," Chandler said.
Chandler said some people in oil-rich nations want to live the "high life" as long as they could.
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