How far are you willing to go for cheaper gas?

Twenty miles isn’t too great a distance for Etan Harmelech, a Medill graduate student.

“I’m from Highland Park, and gas there is like $2.04 and $2.29 here,” Harmelech said. “I can save a pretty decent amount.”

As gas prices have hovered higher than $2 per gallon for more than a year, nearly all drivers spend time thinking about the cost of fuel. Whether they seek out cheaper gas in other towns, adopt more efficient driving habits or rationalize the high prices, a trip to the pump is no longer a thoughtless errand, but one of strategy.

The average unleaded fuel price as of Thursday for Illinois was about $2.14 per gallon — below the national average of $2.19 — according to IllinoisGasPrices.com.

Gasoline is like no other industry, said Bradley Proctor, founder of GasPriceWatch.com, a consumer advocacy Web site.

“If tomorrow gas goes up another 15 cents a gallon, I have to buy it,” he said. “If Coke goes up 15 cents, I can choose to drink water. But I have to go to work. (Gas) is a commodity in life I have to purchase.”

People become more aware of how much they drive as prices climb, Proctor said. But sticker shock alone is not enough to make people stop driving altogether, he said.

“Americans love their cars too much,” he said. “(But) they’ll get efficient at only making one trip for all things.”

Communication sophomore Laurie Gallien stays closer to Evanston than Harmelech, but compares the prices of different stations.

“I usually get gas in Skokie, off of Green Bay (Road),” Gallien said. “But I know it’s usually anywhere from 20 cents cheaper to a lot cheaper than the gas stations toward Chicago.”

Since prices climbed, business increased about 30 percent at the Oakton & Dodge Shell, station manager Mohammad Tahir said.

Earlier this week, he sold regular-grade gas at $2.24 per gallon, one of the cheapest prices in Evanston, he said. Other stations sold regular gas for more than $2.40.

“I wish we could go down, but we’re the cheapest in the neighborhood, so we have a lot of business,” Tahir said.

Proctor, who founded GasPriceWatch.com in 2000, said many gas station owners raise prices as a “defensive measure.”

“When a major player moves prices up, all competitors have to follow,” Proctor said.

If a station’s prices are so cheap that gas supplies sell out before the next delivery, they lose customers and don’t sell the cigarettes, soda, coffee and food that add income, Proctor said.

Web sites similar to Proctor’s list gas prices at about 129,000 stations. People enter their zip codes and compare area prices.

Buying gas has become frustrating for Larry Wexlar, a Chicago resident who usually buys gas in Evanston.

“I put in $25 and only got half a tank,” Wexlar said. Buying a whole tank of premium-grade gas for his Lexus would cost about $50, he said.

Wexlar now buys “a little bit of gas at a time.” He also opts against buying the premium grade, which can run as high as $2.65 per gallon at some Evanston stations.

“I use cheaper gas, which you’re not supposed to do with this engine.”

Other drivers simply take the rising prices in stride and accept that prices aren’t going to get lower anytime soon.

Chicago resident Adi Clerman has tried to drive less and often uses the El, but said she does not worry about high prices. She filled up Tuesday afternoon at Warren’s Shell Service, 1201 Chicago Ave., where regular-grade gas cost $2.44 per gallon.

“I find it amusing when other people moan about how expensive it is,” Clerman said.

The United States has some of the cheapest gas prices in the world, Clerman said. Friends and family in other countries pay about twice as much as she does for gas, she said, which keeps the current gas prices in perspective.

Still, prices are high enough to keep Harmelech driving to Highland Park and delaying the inevitable.

“Me and my roommate wait until our gas light is red,” he said. “We try to use every fricking drop we can.”

Reach Beth Murtagh at [email protected].