Gasoline in the United States crossed an average of $4 a gallon on Tuesday, a threshold it hadn’t reached since August 2022, continuing a series of nearly uninterrupted increases since the Middle East war began that are chipping away at the spending power of American consumers.

Since the end of February, the average cost of regular gasoline has jumped 35 percent, according to data from the AAA motor club.

Seeing gasoline at more than $4 a gallon — when it was below $3 a month ago — could push American drivers to change their spending habits.

“We have this obsession with gas prices because they dictate a lot of ‘Can we drive? Can we do things we enjoy?’ And now some of that is at risk,” said Patrick De Haan, an analyst at GasBuddy, which also tracks fuel prices.

“As we get to a month of increases and prices are much higher,” he added, “the amount of pressure on Americans’ budgets and their spending is going to ramp up.”