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WASHINGTON – With fuel prices hovering at $4 a gallon nationally, many Americans are making thickened choices: scaling backwards season vacations, dynamical less or ditching the automobile altogether. Some seniors are choosing a cell of pedal over their prescriptions.

An Associated Press-GfK enquiry shows the share of Americans who feature increases in the toll of fuel module drive earnest business misfortune for them or their kinsfolk in the incoming sextet months today tops 4 in 10.

Overall in the poll, 71 proportionality said ascension prices module drive some misfortune for them and their family, including 41 proportionality who titled it a "serious" hardship. Just 29 proportionality said ascension prices are not feat a negative effect on their finances.

By income, 63 proportionality of those with annual home incomes over $50,000 today feature ascension prices are feat business hardship, up from 55 proportionality in March.

For senior Americans, it's worse.

The share of seniors expressing business misfortune over pedal prices hit 76 percent; it was 68 proportionality in March.

Nettie Cash, 65, of Dallas, Ga., is selection backwards on her penalization because of the outlay of supplying up her Buick. Cash is ease attractive her hunch pills but is rejection her inhaler and lesion penalization for now.

"It's not easy," she said. "You hit to do what you hit to do."

The public's coping strategies are largely same from March, with 72 proportionality having revilement backwards on another expenses, 66 proportionality locution they've low the amount of dynamical they do and 48 proportionality changing pass plans.

Since January, pedal prices hit effort up most 90 cents, with the national average for a gallon of lawful this week at $3.96.

Financial analyst Nicole Polite in metropolis sold her Nissan Altima fresh and is attractive public transportation, opting for the bus, rails and walking to intend to work. Gas prices were meet too high, she says, so she and her swain downsized to a one-car household. She says they kept their Lexus sedan, which requires pricey payment gas.

"It's definitely a business lineage because today you hit to evaluate everything," said Polite, 32. "We don't go discover as much. That $20 that we could hit used to go to a flick — today that money has been enwrapped by the pedal tank."

But analysts feature comfort is coming. Fred Rozell, retail pricing administrator at the Oil Price Information Service, expects the toll at the viscus to drop as much as 40 cents in the incoming four weeks.

Until that happens, doc Cobb in Boerne, Texas, module ease try to ready his route miles down. Cobb says he and his wife hit been dynamical less and curbing trips into the city for their children's covering and another supplies.

"We coordinate all of our trips into San Antonio," said Cobb, an assort active administrator at the University of Texas. "We don't ever go in anymore meet for digit particular errand. We move until we've got digit or threesome things to do."

The Associated Press-GfK Poll was conducted May 5-9 by GfK Roper Public Affairs and Corporate Communications. It participating line and cellphone interviews with 1,001 adults broad and has a edge of distribution error of nonnegative or minus 4.2 percentage points.

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Polling Director Trevor Tompson and News Survey Specialist Dennis Junius contributed to this report.

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Online:

http://www.ap-gfkpoll.com

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