"It could go down some more," Parkins, a Mount Airy auto mechanic, said hopefully as he filled his Volkswagen at a Liberty station on Butler Pike.

Parkins may get his wish in Pennsylvania, if only thanks to the current economic slowdown and some of its underlying causes, including the credit crunch and the sudden drop in stock and commodity prices.

In parts of the region, including at a Wawa station in Brookhaven and a Liberty station in Fairless Hills, the price of a gallon of regular dipped below $3 yesterday.

While gasoline has been below $3 a gallon in neighboring New Jersey, where fuel taxes are lower, the decline in Pennsylvania meant that for some a psychological barrier had been crossed - this time in a direction they welcomed.

Nationally, average gasoline prices have been dropping since July, and the financial crisis dominating the news appears to have speeded the decline.

The American Automobile Association predicts that average gasoline prices nationwide, which stood at $3.21 a gallon yesterday and at $3.73 just a month ago, will dip below $3 before Thanksgiving, according to Catherine Rossi, a spokeswoman for AAA Mid-Atlantic.

Rossi said drivers seemed to be benefiting from "this dark financial cloud" because it had pushed down crude-oil prices, dampened demand, and boosted the dollar's relative value. "The silver lining seems to be lower gas prices for motorists," Rossi said.

AAA's daily survey of gasoline prices put yesterday's average for a gallon of regular at $3.17 in Philadelphia and its Pennsylvania suburbs. Prices as low as $2.95 a gallon were sighted in some of the Pennsylvania suburbs.

And across the Delaware River in New Jersey, the average price was $2.92 a gallon, down from $3.38 a month ago. According to the Web site www.phillygasprices.com, some South Jersey stations were charging less than $2.80 a gallon.

For the moment, the dip below $3 a gallon could be short-lived.

Gasoline prices could climb a bit today, Al Torcini, owner of the Butler Pike station, predicted as he checked his office computer. According to a price index Torcini monitors, the daily spot price for a wholesale gallon, before taxes and other retail costs are added, stood at $1.92 yesterday, up from $1.80 just a day before.

Torcini attributed the rise to general price volatility, which he said had been exacerbated by the financial crisis. "Commodities are all over the place," Torcini said.

Bloomberg News reported that crude-oil prices had rebounded yesterday after plunging 17 percent last week, apparently as commodities investors gained confidence that multinational rescue plans would bolster world markets.

Still, retail prices may remain soft if this year's brief spike in prices has longer-term effects on demand.

AAA's Rossi said U.S. Energy Department data indicate that Americans drove 3.6 percent less in July 2008 than they did in July 2007. The decline, the ninth straight monthly drop, meant the nation's drivers traveled 9.6 billion fewer miles.

Like others gassing up yesterday at the Butler Pike Liberty station, Parkins said he and his wife were contributing to that decline.

"For close distances, we use our bikes," he said.

Andi Surface of Conshohocken said she recently traded a gas-guzzling vehicle for a high-mileage Toyota Yaris.

"I definitely got it for the gas," she said.

Torcini said that overall demand at his station was down about 10 percent from a year ago and that he did not expect a rebound even if prices stayed down.

"I think people's driving habits, the changes they made, are sticking," he said.