With gas prices going up, have you bought a bike?

[Javaman]

Or using another means of transportation?

[brainshrub]

1. I've been using the bus regularly for the past few months.

Today I bought my first monthly bus-pass. :D

For the past year I've been attempting to wean myself off my car. It's a lot harder than I thought it was going to be.

[ewagner]

2. Brought my old Sanwa

in for an overhaul yesterday...It will be ready on the 12th....

I'll use it for going back and forth to my exercise sessions and for those short, annoying "I forgot to get _____ when shopping" runs that happen about 2 - 3 times per week.....

[LynzM]

3. Not yet....

But as we only live 1-2 miles from the grocery store, library, pharmacy, etc., I'm certainly thinking about getting one that has a seat for my daughter and baskets for things I need to carry :)

[Bouncy Ball]

4. I own a bike, but it's impossible to use it for practical purposes

unless I got one of those trailers on the back. I could reach the grocery store on the bike, but wouldn't have anywhere to put groceries, unless I had one of those bike trailers.

Most everything else is too far away. The suburbs weren't planned with bikes in mind, only cars. Also no bike lanes or even sidewalks in a lot of areas, so you are taking your life in your hands. It's sad.

[cheezus]

7. I disagree, you just need to change your mindset

Just don't buy so much at once; you can fit a lot of groceries into a backpack.

The other factor is getting used to it taking A LOT longer to get places. On the other hand, I find that this slows down the pace of life nicely.

My biggest complaint of the longer trips in the summertime is the sweat. The answer to that may be an electric assisted bicycle (e-bike). There are some reasonably priced ones, as well as kits to convert your current bicycle. Supposedly you can hit 20mph with little effort as well as go uphill as easily as down.

[AndyTiedye]

13. Mindset Is Not Enough When Work Is In Freeway Hell

When the workplace is surrounded by freeways and our national flower,
the cloverleaf, bicycling there is difficult at best.
Supermarkets aren't very bicycle-friendly either.

Just don't buy so much at once; you can fit a lot of groceries into a backpack.

You're just shopping for yourself, aren't you?

My biggest complaint of the longer trips in the summertime is the sweat.

That can be a real problem. Most of us just don't smell very good
after even a short ride in hot weather. Nothing for that but to
get showers put in practically everywhere.

The answer to that may be an electric assisted bicycle (e-bike). There are some reasonably priced ones, as well as kits to convert your current bicycle. Supposedly you can hit 20mph with little effort as well as go uphill as easily as down.

Have you tried any of these?
An ebike with lithium-polymer batteries and regenerative braking
would be just the thing for us hill-dwellers.

[Bouncy Ball]

21. Thanks, you took the words out of my mouth (or keyboard).

I am shopping for three. Which makes a single backpack for groceries a bit harder to manage. After I fit a half-gallon of milk and four or five food items in there, it's full.

The sweatiness in the summer is a problem, too. I live in a part of the country where it's hot from May through November. One summer I decided to make it my personal mission to bike as many places as I could.

I ended up suffering from heatstroke one horrible day when I was also almost hit by a truck. I didn't ride between the hours of noon and three, I'm pretty hardened to Texas summers, I was drinking water, but sometimes it's just too much. And I was out cold, no longer even sweating.

After that, I went back to my car. I was concerned about pollution that summer, it wasn't high gas prices. I made it three weeks.

There's no way I could use my bike for work. I drive to many different schools to meet with teachers. I have to be dressed up and I have to carry quite a few materials with me. How would I do that and not be a stinky mess everywhere I went? And all year round, how would I do that and get anywhere on time?

[LizW]

15. Same here, Bouncy Ball

I live within 2 miles of just about everything I need except the library. The grocery store, pharmacy, a fair number of restaurants, a pretty good little dollar store, and the middle school are all very close.

But I can't ride my bike to most of it because the main road is two lanes with no paved shoulder. It's dangerous as all get out in a car, and would be suicide on a bike. I would give anything for a mile and a half of safe bike lane along that road.

[Coastie for Truth]

5. Traded in our SUV for a Corolla right after 9/11

Traded in our old old old Corolla for a Prius as soon as I read Goodstein's Out of Gas: The End of the Age of Oil and read a review/survey of Deffeyes' Beyond Oil : The View from Hubbert's Peak and Hubbert's Peak : The Impending World Oil Shortage

[Rainbowreflect]

6. I take the bus most days.

My work use to pay for my bus pass, but a few months ago they changed their policy & now I pay half. Oh well, it is still more than worth it.

[Dave Reynolds]

8. I'm in the middle of BFE

50 miles from work, no public transport or vanpools. I spend all my bicycle money in the gas tank.

[SCDem]

9. I just bought a hybrid

Would love to bike to the grocery store but would feel uncomfortable doing so with 16 month old child in the kind of traffic and roads we have in this area.

[crispini]

10. I carpool sometimes....

and my carpool buddy and I are going to work up to bicycling. It's 17 miles to work, so one-way is not too bad but round trip is a bit much for either of us right now. We've done it before but it does take a bit of planning: take one car to work, with bikes. Bike home. Then in the AM, take one car back to work. We've done this before and it reduces six trips to two. :thumbsup:

[Rabbit of Caerbannog]

11. 14 miles each way

into and out of Richmond (except when it rains)

Car traffic BE DAMNED!

[kick-ass-bob]

12. I have been using the bus to go to work for 4 years now.

It takes longer, but I have no hassles with traffic!

[amazona]

14. had one already mostly it doesn't work for me

There is no safe place to get to the store and no place to lock it up when I get there. When my partner's co-worker was killed on his bike in a hit and run, that pretty much killed it for me. It's bad for my lungs being out there in all that exhaust so if I don't get run over by a bad guy then it's heart disease and lung cancer to look forward to.

Just not worth it.

I'll pay the extra 20 cents a gallon for the durn gas.

[Dukkha]

16. I've got a bike

You can ride it if you like.
It's got a basket, a bell that rings and
Things to make it look good.
I'd give it to you if I could, but I borrowed it.

[Left Is Write]

17. No, but a bike with a trailer for the kids would be awesome.

I have a wagon to cart them around in for walking to the grocery store and the library. The only problem is, I can't carry very many groceries in the wagon when it's full of two children.

[leftofthedial]

18. bike and bus

trying to replace 75% of my driving this summer

[silverpatronus]

19. i'm already a public transport kinda gal...

but i'll also be buying a bike this summer.

[leftofthedial]

20. oops! --delete

[all.of.me]

22. no.

not much i can do on a bike out where i live, but i am driving a lot less. it is one trip to town to run errands and pick up kids, and that is only once a week maybe. the rest of the time, they take the bus and carpool.

gas just went up 8 cents again yesterday.

[Bruce McAuley]

23. Fixing up an electric scooter I got on eBay

It was a customer return, cost me $80 shipping included. Looks to have a break in the switch part, so I'm learning to take it apart(cheap construction elsewhere, but a pretty stout frame), delete all the frills and put it back on the road for around my small town here in eastern Washington. I usually only go from home to the Post office anyway, and the store is on the way. All uphill to the PO, but an easy ride down home again.

Bruce

[ProfessorGAC]

24. Already Had One

Live in a small town. Got a cheapie 15 speed, (well not really cheap but not very pricey either), and a backpack. I can go to the store for my wife, go pick up sandwiches, go get beer etc. There's probably no place in the entire town that would be more than a 40 minute round trip.
The Professor

[Pinata Monkey]

25. My bikes...

...are worth more than my car!

[MissB]

26. We have plenty of bikes.

We have two tandems (set up to take the kids on the back) as well as bikes for each of us. We also have a cargo trailer that has a huge waterproof bag. Plenty of panniers, etc.

The high price of gasoline hasn't yet changed the way I transport stuff, though. I just reserve my shopping for one weekday and one weekend day.

By summer and into next fall, I expect to be doing most of my shopping on bike.

[CO Liberal]

27. I Commute 45 Miles Each Way

No mass transit, no carpool opportunities.

[Tektonik]

28. I live within 2 miles of everything I would ever need

5 grocery stores, a mall, my university, many other shops, etc. so I walk. Sometimes I'll walk 8 miles in a day (but that's only if I have someone to talk to on the phone or if I have my ipod).

[Abelman]

29. Not yet

I'm planning on getting one this summer. But I also need to get a car because biking isn't feasible in the area where I live in the summer.

Stupid suburbs.

But I will be getting a very good car when it comes to gas mileage, one of the Toyota Corollas probably.

[Coyote_Bandit]

30. I'm dropping my gym membership

in lieu of biking. There is a park with a bike trail just over a mile long which is about a quarter mile from my house. There is also a K-Mart within easy safe walking distance. There is not cheap reliable public transportation available to many parts of town.

I'm an unemployed schmuck who does whatever freelance work I can pick up from home. I'm strictly limiting my driving. In addition to giving up my gym membership I am also going to drop my weekly Saturday morning breakfast outing.

Most of the places I have to drive to are within a radius of less than four miles. I'm hoping to keep my weekly driving to an average of less than 50 miles or so. I have elderly parents that I try to visit every couple of months or so. Last year only put 5300 miles on my car. This year I'm hoping to reduce that to about 4000 or so.

Just think, all those repuke small biz owners here in JOklahoma thought chimpy would serve their interests. If my habits are at all indicative of even a small portion of the populace here then just the opposite has happened.

[Worst Username Ever]

31. I only use a tank every two weeks or so.

5 extra dollars per fill up isn't enough of a loss to justify making many changes, IMO.

[Skittles]

32. not too feasible for me in the metroplex

but car-pooling is definitely catching on

[gollygee]

33. We have bikes

we needed a few groceries yesterday and took the bikes out to get them. We have a trailer for our daughter and there's enough space for her and a few other things.

My husband also works within reasonable bike distance from home and has been working out the logistics.

Gas prices will keep going up. We're running out of oil and we need to find some long-term solutions. Biking is one of our solutions.

[Trailrider1951]

34. I've tried biking to work here in Houston,

but it's suicide, even on 4 lane roads: Those damn pickup drivers don't want to get over to give you room, and pass by at 50mph, missing me by INCHES. YIKES!! So, now I ride my scoot. 80 mpg, 35 mph, and a ton of fun to ride. I use less than one gallon of gas per week. And, I can take up the whole lane!