Drivers in Toronto sacrificed their evenings in exchange for a fill from one of the city's cheapest pumps, with another agonizingly long line forming Wednesday outside the entrance to the Pioneer Gas Station on Dupont Street.

While the station's reputation for offering gas and diesel at a competitive price point has been well known for years, its traffic levels have spiked in the last few months. 

The reason why is no mystery. The worsening affordability crisis has many of us looking for ways to cut back on spending, and seeing gas prices listed even a couple cents below average is enough to make anyone slam on the brakes these days (even if their tank is full). 

But as the sun starts setting, and the gas price drops by another cent or two, that's when things really get out of control, and Wednesday was the perfect example. 

Cars are queued in a long lineup at this Toronto gas station to save a few cents on their fill up - 📹 blogTO #Toronto pic.twitter.com/Aezz9eCRFE

— blogTO (@blogTO) July 27, 2023

From its starting point at Emerson Ave., the lineup stretched halfway to Dufferin Street with a total of about 15 cars in the queue — and that didn't include the other eight cars already occupying the pumps. 

Drivers at the back of the line waited almost half an hour for their turn to fuel up. And it wasn't just one rush: for the next hour, the line would remain at least 10 cars deep.

If you're wondering what would compel anyone to subject themselves to this, let's take a look at the numbers. 

By 8 p.m., Pioneer was selling their gas at 161.6 cents per litre. In comparison, the nearest Esso was selling gas around the same time at a cost of 167.9, which means that drivers who filled up at Pioneer saved almost 6.5 cents per litre.

At a glance, it seems like a rather insignificant margin, but for the average gas tank of 60 litres, that's just shy of $4. 

While many of us want to believe that time is money, money is the only money right now, and people are more than willing to spend their time to save it where they can.