Bay Area Gas Prices Soar Closer to $5 a Gallon

With the inflation rate at a 30-year high, gasoline prices are among those rising the fastest for Bay Area consumers, approaching an average of $5 a gallon in most places.

As of Thursday, gas prices across the region have gone up more than 20 cents a gallon in just the past month and are up about $1.50 a gallon from the same time last year, according to AAA.

At a Shell station in San Ramon, a gallon of regular gas was priced at $4.95. Others places in the Bay Area are more than $5.

Here are the latest average gas prices from AAA as of Nov. 11:

• San Francisco: $4.85, up from $3.40 a year ago and up 22 cents over the past month
• Oakland: $4.76, up from $3.30 a year ago and up 23 cents over the past month
• San Jose: $4.77, up from $3.26 a year ago and up 25 cents over the past month

The consumer price index rose 6.2% over the past 12 months, the most since December 1990, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Examples of other prices soaring in the past year: used vehicles have increased 26.4%, and beef is up 20.1%.