The energy crisis never ended in Columbia.
Robert Webster bought just $2 worth of gas at the Town Center Exxon off Little Patuxent Parkway one day last week, just enough to get him out of town to find a lower price.
"It's ridiculous," said Mr. Webster, an Alexandria, Va., resident who often visits friends in Columbia. "The prices here are way out of whack."
Around Columbia, residents and visitors try to dodge prices at the town's gas pumps, fleeing to catch bargains in more competitive places such as Silver Spring and U.S. 40 in Ellicott City -- where prices are as much as 10 cents lower.
With gas prices in Maryland set to increase by as much as 8 cents a gallon next month -- because the federal government has ordered oil companies to provide cleaner gas -- that means even higher prices for Columbia customers.
"It's killing me," said John Crick, 34, who moved to Columbia three months ago from Newport News, Va., where he used to pay 99 cents a gallon for regular unleaded gas. He now tries to fill his tank in Silver Spring near his job. There he pays $1.13 a gallon.
"But if I forget to fill up, I get stuck in Columbia, again," said Mr. Crick, while pumping gas at the Long Reach Village Center Exxon for $1.27 a gallon.
That's about the average price for a gallon of gas in Columbia, based on an informal price survey by The Sun of regular unleaded gas, the most popular grade.
The survey was taken at 11 gas stations in the heart of Columbia last week. The lowest price was $1.22 a gallon at the Crown station off Snowden River Parkway; the highest price was about $1.29 a gallon.
By comparison, at eight gas stations also surveyed last week along U.S. 40 in Ellicott City, prices started as low as $1.19 and went no higher than $1.20.
"People come in here all the time and complain about the prices in Columbia," said Marty Townsley, manager of a Shell gas station across U.S. 40 from Normandy Shopping Center.
"Route 40 has always been really competitive," Mr. Townsley said. "Everybody sort of pulls down their prices because of the competition."
In Columbia, the Rouse Co. blocked competition between dealers when it provided just one gas station location in each village center.
Other Columbia stations are located in similarly noncompetitive settings near shopping malls and in business parks.
