Photo by Rick Sause

District car owners who are piling on the mileage this weekend may see some of the lowest average gas prices in 11 years, according to AAA Mid-Atlantic. As of today, the average cost of gas per gallon in D.C. is $2.48. And if that price doesn’t skyrocket in the next three days, this year’s Memorial Day will carry the lowest average price at the pump in D.C. since 2005.

I got my first car, an Oldsmobile Eighty-Eight during the summer of 2007. With a broken gas gauge and weekly trips from D.C. to Baltimore with my best friend, I filled up my tank every few days. Since it was my first ride, I didn’t know that $4 a gallon was not the norm—I was just happy to have my own wheels.

Fast-forward to May 2008, when D.C. continued to see some of the highest gas prices in years. On Memorial Day, car owners were shelling out $4.03 per gallon in the District and $3.94 in the suburbs, which was the same as the national average, according to AAA Mid-Atlantic.

After a two-year decline when average gas prices on Memorial Day fared less than $3 per gallon, the District’s prices jumped again in 2011. On Memorial Day four years ago, drivers paid $4.06 per gallon in the city and $3.85 throughout the region, compared to a $3.79 national average.

But heading into the summer’s first holiday this year, local residents are paying $2.48 a gallon to fill up tanks in D.C. today and $2.30 in the suburbs (the national average in $2.32). According to AAA Mid-Atlantic, that’s the lowest cost of gas on Memorial Day in D.C. since 2005, when it was $2.24.

Across the country, AAA expects nearly 34 million people to drive to their Memorial Day destinations this year— an increase of 2.1 percent from last year. As we don’t know what next year will hold, it seems they have the right idea to take advantage of the current gas prices.