Free gas in Cicero — if you wait
April 5, 2022
Last week Thursday, Willie Wilson gave $200,000 worth of gas for free, for residents in Illinois. This week, he will spend another $200,000 for free gas. It’s more than likely the same will happen over spring break. With the rising prices of gas due to Russia’s invasion in Ukraine, the US saw a massive increase in gas and oil prices. The BP gas station here in Cicero was giving out free gas Thursday morning, with terrible traffic, especially here on Cermak.
In a survey of 10 random students, 6 said they would not wait for free gas, and 4 said they would. Those who said no, all said the same thing: “It’s a waste of time!” —which makes sense since you have to wait in line for hours, just to have to waste the gas in your car on the way home.
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Steve • Apr 14, 2022 at 1:40 pm
I think this is a good idea because gas prices are rising, my parents don’t like how much money they are spending on gas.
Elizabeth Cuevas • Apr 14, 2022 at 12:46 pm
I think that this was a generous act from Willie Wilson because gas prices have been going up too much affecting peoples lives. I believe that something that would help people with the increase of gas prices would be to put a hold on tax when purchasing gas. Connecticut is one the many states that have made a law to suspend tax per gallon from April until June.
Yesenia Gonzalez • Apr 14, 2022 at 12:16 pm
I thought this was a good idea because gas prices are going up but this can also cause a lot of problems because sometimes there’s fights because of who got there first. In my opinion I think they should send everybody like $50 to there household and whenever they want they can go fill up there car because when they give that free gas not many people can go due to them having to work
Reporter • Apr 14, 2022 at 10:32 am
Free gas is good and all but we gotta take consideration on what are the risk.
Generally, an idling car uses somewhere between 1/5 to 1/7 gallon of fuel per hour. Compact cars that carry a 2-liter capacity engine burn around 0.16 – 0.3 gallons of gas on a per hourly basis. A large sedan, on the other hand, with a 4.6-liter engine, burns approximately 0.5 – 0.7 gallons of gas while idling.
So when cars are starting there idling for hours on end. They are just wasting more gas.
BUT WAIT THERES MORE.
We also have to take consideration of wait lines. People want free stuff we are animals so we have to see the problems in traffic and how it will effect others. A lot of students got late to classes and traffic caused a lot of problems to the economy.
That traffic comes at a big cost, in both time and money. A new study found the average urban commuter spends about 54 hours each year sitting in traffic. It also costs the U.S. economy a grand total of $179 billion each year, according to the Texas A&M Transportation Institute.
So as it turns out this whole operation caused a lot of problems within the economy. So the question is… Was this event benefit us the long run. Or harmed us?
Reporter • Apr 14, 2022 at 10:19 am
I think it is great that people are donating gas for those who truly need it but I know that there will be people that are not financially in need that will take advantage of the free gas.
Reporter • Apr 14, 2022 at 10:39 am
-diana delgado
Juan Valdivia • Apr 6, 2022 at 2:48 pm
I think your idea is just gonna cause more problems like terrible traffic, but I do think that your idea about free gas is good since gas prices are too high. I really like how you looked at both perspectives from this idea.
portillo • Apr 6, 2022 at 2:45 pm
wow so cool
i disagree bout free gas bc there was traffic and i was late to school n my momma got mad
Esbeyri Rivera • Apr 6, 2022 at 9:38 am
I think the idea of free gas is a good idea since the prices are so high but it might just cause more problems like mentioned in the article there was terrible traffic. This article shows the good and bad about free gas which it good to look at it from both point of views.
Diego Sazo • Apr 6, 2022 at 9:37 am
I find it interesting that so many people would wait hours in line for free gasoline. I agree with the students that said they would not wait in line, because in my opinion free gas is not worth the time spent waiting, on top of the fact that you would waste a lot of gas moving your car in the line. For those who need it though, I do think it was a good service of Willie Wilson to give out gas.
Jocelyn Rodriguez • Apr 6, 2022 at 9:26 am
I think the idea of getting free gas meanwhile the prices have rapidly increased is helpful for the people who are struggling to pay their bills and necessities. This article is overall a good resource for people who need more info about what is currently happening in cicero. I also think the survey was a good idea because you are able to get many other people’s opinion
gio • Apr 6, 2022 at 9:25 am
it was a nice thing what willie Wilson did to help out the community. But like the article said i think its pointless cause you going to be in line for hours wasting gas.