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Gasoline gripes are weighing so heavily on people's minds - and wallets - you'd have to try very hard not to hear it.

But for all the complaining at the pumps, very few drivers appear to be at the point of cutting back, even with gasoline prices flirting with or over $3 a gallon already locally, and expected to rise further this summer.

"I don't think you can say when you would," said Mike Piccolomini, filling up his truck at the Hess station in Norton this week. "Unless it was $10 a gallon, you gotta get out there."

Motorists apparently are growing resigned to the inevitable. Government statistics show gasoline demand is only just starting to level off after an increase earlier this spring over the same time last year.

Prices have risen 14 consecutive weeks in Massachusetts since the beginning of February, going from an average of $2.15 per gallon to $2.95, according to AAA. But experts say most Americans are locked into their driving habits, and can do - or try to do - little to alter their fuel-buying patterns when prices rise.

Piccolomini, a Mansfield resident, said he has curbed back a bit.

He purchased his truck in 2005, when per-gallon prices were almost $1 less, save for the immediate post-Katrina rise.

It now costs him about $90 to fill up.

Shaun Gardner remembers, with a grimace, how much less it cost to fill up his truck when he bought it seven years ago.

At about $70, now, and climbing, "it's twice the amount," said Gardner, an Attleboro resident.

He works for a small HVAC company in Canton, traveling about 50 miles per day just for work.

"At least I don't have to drive my truck after work," Gardner said. "It's mostly a preference, but I think some people do go to a smaller engine because of gas prices."

For others, big adjustments are made.

Another consumer filling up at Hess, who did not give her name, drives daily to Taunton, where she works, from Derry, N.H., where she lives. "My sister lives in Attleboro, and I stay here a couple nights a week," she said. "I don't get into my car unless I have to, I'll tell you that. It's crazy."

She's actually relocating to the area - to be closer to work for several reasons.

Charlene Bopp, manager at Shepard's Flowers in Mansfield, which does a large delivery business, was saddened Friday when she raised her delivery surcharge.

"I put it off, put it off, put it off - but how can you not?," she said. "I hate doing it."

Shepard's has one delivery van that gets filled up three times per week. Combined with insurance and maintenance, gasoline prices caused her a lot of stress.

"There was a lot of contemplating about doing this," she said. "It's killing me." Experts disagree over how high prices have to rise before a majority of consumers would be shocked into driving less.

It's a psychological thing, said Larry Compeau, executive officer for the Society for Consumer Psychology.

"We might actually see some reaction at $3.50 (a gallon)," he said.

Others say the price has to hit $4 a gallon before it's shocking.

The Derry, N.H., woman said she'll give up when she can't afford to get to work - probably a long way off.

"It's hard to say," she said. "If you can't afford to get work, you'd just have to find a different job."

REBECCA KEISTER can be reached at 508-236-0336 or at rkeister@thesunchronicle.com. The Associated Press contributed to this report.