Rising Cost of Crude Oil Will Give Rise to Gasoline Prices and Prompts Savings Measures
The cost of a barrel of crude oil on world markets reached us$59.15 yesterday and the government is intent on keeping its promise to bring measures to reduce the consumption of gasoline if the world price reached the us$60 mark.

One of the measures that the government will put in place is restricting vehicular access to downtown during morning rush hour. The government will also move to change work hours to an hour earlier for all government employees. That means that government employees will start work at 7am.

President Abel Pacheco gave yesterday a brief view of what is coming as the price of gasoline will take another hike in the coming weeks. Pacheco said the measures will not be only temporary, they should be adopted and maintained even when the price of gasoline drops.

The government is hoping that any measures it takes they will be accepted by the public and that business take the lead of government in changing work hours and schedules to reduce the number of people on the roads at the same time.

Moving from La Sabana park on the west to the Plaza de la Democracia to the east along Paseo Colon and Avenida Segunda - a little over a mile - can take more than 45 minutes during rush hour and about 25 minutes during the day. With no traffic, the trip takes about 5 minutes.

Transit police will continue its efforts to move along traffic at major intersections where the volume of traffic is greatest and continue its policy of not charging tolls during 5pm and 7pm, in an effort to keep the flow of traffic moving on the highways leading out of San José.

The Refinadora Costarricense de Petróleo (RECOPE)  is expected to make a formal request to the Autoridad Reguladora de Servicios Publicos (ARESEP) in the coming days which is expected affecting the price of gasoline at the pumps as early as next week.