As gasoline consumption in countries as far away as China and India increases exponentially, Almaden residents pay more to fill their tanks because oil-producing countries have to provide more barrels of crude oil to meet rising demand for gas. One barrel of crude oil yields about 42 gallons of gas, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

Last week Almaden residents were paying more than $2.50 a gallon at local gas stations.

There's no point in complaining to the gas station owners. Every morning they get an email from parent companies like Shell and Chevron that dictate the price per gallon for that day. Lately, the price has jumped three to four cents with every daily email.

"Maybe consumers blame us, but we don't make more money as prices go up," said Hank Rullhausen, who owns the Chevron at Almaden Expressway and Camden Avenue, explaining that gas stations pay more in taxes as prices go up.

Union 76 manager Ben Talibi agreed. "And our volume drops. People buy less gas. To maintain volume you have to drop prices."

Talibi said he remembers spikes in prices during the 1990s. "But that was just for a short time. Not like this. And it always goes up faster than it goes down. It goes up three or four cents. But then drops by nine-tenths of a cent."

Although the amount of crude oil needed for gas is one of the main factors behind higher prices at the pump, most of the consumer's money goes for taxes.

According to the Department of Energy, California customers who buy 10 gallons of gas at $2.50 a gallon pump $14.62 into taxes. Eleven dollars pays for the barrel of crude oil that generated the gas. And the rest—a whopping $3.50—gets split between the station owner and the cost of getting the gas delivered to the station in the first place.

It's not just customers that feel the hit to their wallets. Business owners do, too.

"It affects our [delivery] drivers. I don't know what we're going to do," said Jessica Nguien, new owner of Almaden Valley Florist. She officially took over the business April 1— just in time for the gas price hike.

Almaden resident and globe-hopper Tom Smith pointed out that as bad as prices are in San Jose, prices overseas are worse. "When I was in Paris I had a conversation with a person that took people to the airport in his four-cylinder Volvo at 22 miles to the gallon—his monthly bill was about $500," he said. In London, gas cost about $6 per gallon.

Smith said he's not driving less despite higher prices, but he plans to cut back on niceties like movies and restaurants.

Don Scott, on the other hand, said that on whole, his family is driving less. "My wife has become more sensitive to 'car pooling' with other moms for the kids' activities. We also may change which vehicle we choose to use for some excursions—selecting the ones that have better gas mileage versus those that don't perform well in that area."

Unlike consumers, city workers like police officers can't stop driving. City manager spokesman Tom Manheim said the city has to attempt to see the future when setting budgets.

"Last year we could see the trend [in prices]. So we projected in the budget. General services has reserves for this kind of thing," he said.

San Jose set aside $3.87 million for gas this year, according to Manheim, and so far the city's using about $200,000 less than estimated. Since the city buys in bulk, the price per gallon works out to $1.90 per gallon.