With Hurricane Irma looming and people evacuating from Florida, temporary gas shortages are being experienced in parts of Florida, Georgia, and other nearby states. What can you do if you’re looking for gas, and stations around you are out?
There are a few options that can limit your travel time and help you find gas near you faster.
Use Gas Buddy Online or Via Mobile App
Gas BuddyGasBuddy map for San Antonio.
Gas Buddy is a gasoline availability tracker that works from crowdsourcing reports from other users, and it’s very popular right now. If you visit a station and find that it has fuel or it doesn’t have fuel, mark that online or in the app. You can use Gas Buddy online to track fuel availability here. It has mobile apps here, but to access gas availability, you’ll need to go to the amenities tab, scroll over, and choose “has fuel.”
Gas Buddy is a great app, people are marking stations as “no fuel,” “has fuel,” “no power,” or “unknown.” This can give you real-time updates about gasoline status as you need it. Just remember: if you’re using the map, you won’t see the green/red/gray/black marks until you’ve zoomed in closer to the location where you’re looking.
If you use the app, do everyone a favor and update it with the results you’ve found too.
Note: Some people have contacted Heavy to share that GasBuddy isn’t always updating fast enough for them. If you’re really low on gas, you might call the gas station that GasBuddy shows has availability first, to make sure the information is up-to-date.
Use Waze to Track Gas Stations with Fuel
Waze also has a feature that lets you update gas prices at local stations, along with a button to tell others if a station is out of gas. This is a newer feature, but if you use Waze, you’ll know that you’ll likely want to avoid a station that has an out-of-gas alert on it. The longer this feature is available and the more people use it, the more accurate it will be.
To find the out-of-gas button, go to the lower right corner of the app where you send alerts. Click the gas prices option, and there will be an option to indicate that no gas is available.
Use NextDoor
If you’re staying put, then NextDoor can be an invaluable resource for finding gas in your neighborhood. You’ll have to prove your residency, usually with a credit card that uses your address. People on NextDoor typically share helpful information with their neighbors, including which gas stations have fuel.
Call the Gas Station
You might also just make a phone call if you have a particular gas station in mind. Try calling the gas stations closest to you and find out if there’s gas available, rather than wasting gas by driving from location to location. And don’t wait to fill up until you’re almost on empty, if that’s your typical strategy. Give yourself a little room so you’re not panicked, thinking your car’s going to break down on the side of the road as you search for gas.
You might also just try looking late at night or very early in the morning, around 3 or 4 a.m. Sometimes it’s best to avoid long lines from rush hour commutes.
Visit Online Communities
Sometimes you can get the best real-time information from online communities, such as those on Reddit. Try these to get started:
Do you have any other suggestions? Let us know in the comments below.
