You are driving less aren't you?

[NNN0LHI]

I know I am. Still paying an arm and a leg to drive less but I am doing just that. I combine trips these days and make several stops each trip rather than making a lot of single stop trips. No more driving to the next town for lunch. Gas to get there and back costs more than lunch does now. I walk the half a mile each way to check my mail when it isn't raining. No more unnecessary trips to just go look at something any more. I have caught myself concentrating on my MPG usage indicator closer than my speedometer lately.

I ain't the Lone Ranger on this one am I?

Don

[Ian David]

1. Gas is so expensive, I've started buying porn by mail-order. n/t

[NNN0LHI]

5. That is really hilarious

[IndependentDem]

21. you buy porn?!?!?!?

i thought that was what the internet was for...

[sorrybushisfromtexas]

2. No, my wife and I both are driving less.

We carpool to our jobs at least two days a week.

[Divine Discontent]

3. You're not alone. I told my fam we're driving less b/c of this disaster

I wrote a couple days ago, how I was never going to see that Fifty again, when I filled up last. A Fifty Dollar Bill for each fill-up is a complete disaster for this economy.

[Hugin]

4. You betcha... Quite a bit.

I plan trips now, also.

[klook]

6. Damn right I am

Fortunately I'm in a situation where I can work at home a couple of days a week.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

7. Actually no, I'm not...

I've always combined trips...

And...

I drive a Camry Hybrid...;-)

[DAGDA56]

8. Slightly...but I drive a Miata (ok in Florida). What I don't understand...

...is the number of really big SUV's I still see on the roads. It doesn't snow, and there are no hills, so I don't know why anyone needs a Hummer, Armada or anything with a Ram on it.

[derby378]

9. I try, but it ain't that easy

Two years ago, a full tank of gas cost me $36. Now, it's $52.

[seabeyond]

10. i have always been pretty conservative in driving. more so in past with rising prices, BUT

now.... lol lol, thinking two three and a little more about if i need to go somewhere and using gas.

[tridim]

11. About half.

I'm also selling my convertible, at about 23mpg I can't afford to drive it. A scooter is in my near future.

[NNN0LHI]

20. Electric or gas scooter?

I was looking at a Schwinn Stealth S1000 (electric) which I think will get me just about anyplace in this town and back home again on one charge.

I don't know much about them though.

Don

[Wednesdays]

25. I bought one of those about a year ago at Sam's Club

It rode real nice, not very fast (about 11 mph tops), and could go a total of 4 miles on one charge, which was plenty for me to get to the grocery store or library. And I'm a fairly heavy man, too. I was too heavy for the tires, though (I think the weight limit is supposed to be 200 lbs.), and the rear tire on it failed after I rode it only about 8 times. I haven't made a huge effort yet to replace the tire, but so far that doesn't appear to be an easy task.

Because I thought it felt uncomfortable, I replaced their standard seat with one that was wider and softer, but others might not be bothered by the original seat.

I'd highly recommend it if you're not very heavy, need it to travel short distances while limiting your "cargo" to a small backpack, and aren't in much of a hurry to get there. I rode it exclusively on streets with flat terrain and so I don't know what it's performance would be like on steep hills.

[Fovea]

29. I think you should also check out

the Giant, and LaFree electric bikes.
And maybe a cheap trailer.

With all the electrics, you get farther the more you pedal.
A lot of folks use the motor for hill climbing primarily.

[hlthe2b]

12. To work and back... No side trips at all...

I'm walking from home to shop for groceries or I stop on the way home from along the route...I've become extremely boring (more boring?)as a result because I frankly look for excuses NOT to go places.

That, and the way I look at buying food, now, is really a paradigm shift... I mean, how on earth can I justify $4.99 for a pint of ice cream ($3.50 when on sale)....?

[parasim]

13. I work from home, so I don't have to drive to work...

but i do ride my bicycle everywhere else whenever I can. which is most places that I go...

[RB TexLa]

14. No

[grasswire]

15. I gave up my car five years ago...

...and have been carrying groceries ever since then. It's terribly inconvenient, awfully cold and wet at times, exhausting, but I'm not going back.

[cliffordu]

16. Nope. I spent fifty bucks on gas last year.

This year I spent ZERO so far, and will do everything I can to finish the year like this.....


I killed my car after 9/11 and haven't looked back.


So, I ride my bicycle everywhere and smile at gasoline stations.

Six bucks a gallon before the new year!!!

you heard it here first!!

[bush_equals_mladic]

31. 50 bucks?

Good, this year that sum will not get you any gas anyway. Mode change will do you good 100%.

[elocs]

17. No, I'm not driving less, but then I drive very little already.

I have had a new car for 16 months and only have just over 8000 miles on it and 1500 of them were from 3 tips. A little over a gallon of gas will get me to work and back all week. When the weather gets nicer I will ride my recumbent as often as I can. A tankful of gas will last me for 3 weeks or more and even if gas goes up 10 cents a gallon I will only spend an extra buck to fill up.

[Mojambo]

18. I've been driving less and less for the last 5 years

It has nothing to do with gas prices and everything do do with being a fat, lazy, depressed person with access to delivery EVERYTHING.

[OhioChick]

19. I'm trying to make one trip

to all the places that I need to go, instead of several trips as in the past. However, I have to take my kid out-of-state for medical care and those trips (once every other month) are getting to be a financial burden. Don't have a choice, though. :(

[alfredo]

22. cut mine in half

[Richard Steele]

23. I'm using my Scooter for as many trips as is possible.

Spent a whole $3.50 for gas so far this month.

[krispos42]

24. Nope.

I'm driving exactly the same, which is to say, as little as possible.

I have to drive 55 miles each way to pick up my kid on Saturday, and again to drop him off on Monday, but during the week I usually only drive to work and back (1.5 miles total). Although now that it's warm I'm starting to walk it.

And that's about it.



This may change if I ever get a girlfriend. :-)

[kestrel91316]

26. I only drive 2500 miles a year or so. Hard to cut back any more.

If push comes to shove I get a bus pass and take the bus most everyplace, but it takes lots longer to go anywhere and is only marginally cheaper at a gas price of $4.00 (and we aren't there yet).

When I got this apartment in the fall one of my main considerations was proximity to bus lines, drug and grocery stores, and good restaurants. It's also <3 miles from work.

[aikoaiko]

27. nope, prices are not high enough to make a difference to me.

I'd rather spend the extra 20 a month on something else, but its not enough to change my driving.

[uppityperson]

28. Combining more and being much more careful grocery shopping too.

[EFerrari]

30. I've commuted to every job I've ever had since I was 16. Not any more.

In fact, tomorrow, I have to find a neighbor to give me a jump because I forgot to start the car up for a while.

Not particularly proud of that. I'm just not used to not driving very much yet and forget to go start it up to keep the thing charged.

Old habits die hard.

[Digit]

32. I changed jobs a year ago...went from 21 miles each way to 6 miles

When errands are necessary, I either grab the things I need from the grocery store on my way home from work, which is directly on the route I take home, or combine the errands on my day off in a sequence that saves mileage.

[SeattleGirl]

33. I've been driving less for the past few years.

But I have the option of working from home, and I know that's not the case with the majority of people.

[Andrea]

34. I've been driving as little as possible for several years

My job is 3.1 miles away from home. I walk as many places as possible. I used to ride my bike to work when the weather allowed, but my bike got stolen a couple years ago. I couldn't spare the money to buy a new one, but I've been saving for a new one the last few months and will have it within two weeks - then back to riding it to work. I normally fill up every other week. I hope to cut that back to once every three weeks.

[Nutmegger]

35. I'm fortunate enough to live near a bus line

I've been commuting via bus for five years now. Even when I do use my car on the weekends, I combine trips.

[ForrestGump]

36. Not really

Most of the time my routine's pretty stable, even if the days over which it spreads may change from week to week and I sometimes work more often than at other times. I work on the Las Vegas Strip, which is maybe six miles (at its nearest point) from where I live, and once a week (usually...sometimes less frequently) I'll run my errands according to a preplanned schedule of stops that maximizes travel efficiency. I've pretty much always done the combining-of-errands thing and mapped out my various stops for greatest efficiency, so nothing's going to change in that department. I used to walk at night a lot, just for fun and to think but also sometimes to grab some groceries while I was out, but where I live now is far from the nearest services and any walking I do is just for the more aesthetic benefit of body and mind.

My '73 Lincoln Elvismobile has been parked for a while -- that thing obviously is gas-thirsty (though, sadly, many vehicles made these days are no more fuel efficient while remaining a lot less bodacious to drive in), though I rarely use it for anything but short trips that make up most of my road time these days -- and I'm soon going to try to sell my relatively small-displacement Mercedes and replace it with a used Japanese car that'll be both more fuel efficient and more reliable. I've also got my motorcycle in the shop right now, getting refurbished at an extortionate rate, and that thing gets an average of 40 mpg even when ridden fast and hard. The Kawasaki was my only transport until I bought the Mercedes in December of 2006 but I'm probably going to stick with cars for most of my Vegas errands and certainly for getting to work because, as much as I love riding, cars do have certain advantages for such trips (and the Vegas taxi drivers are bad enough when you're in a car). The bike will let me get out of town, though, and that's good for the soul...at minimal gas usage.

Gas prices here are not as bad as in many places in which I've lived or that I visited, but they're still a relative shock and they suck more and more every day. I'm probably maxed out on the efficiency of my travel habits (short of saving up for a Prius or similar). My fuel bill's pretty minimal, actually, even with mostly using 6- and 8-cylinder vehicles lately. Most of the tricks recommended to increase fuel efficiency were just part of how I learned to drive, primarily by osmotically following my father's example (he used to drive professionally), and my habit of laying off the brakes (and related things, like aspiring to never stop at a stoplight but to gradually roll off and roll on to match light changes and traffic lags) was strongly reinforced by riding a superbike that basically had almost no braking power. :scared:

A car, or at least a motorcycle, is mandatory for where I live. In accordance with the Western model of US urban and suburban development, one that's spread not just across the US but increasingly worldwide, my little part of desert suburbia was decidedly NOT designed for humans but for cars. The nearest supermarkets are miles away and, much as I love to walk long distances, carrying a meaningful load of groceries that far is not really realistic and is certainly out of the question for people who do not share my love of perambulation and for those who suffer from physical ailments that make that much walking, or bicycling, impossible.

People saying that we need to abandon the suburbs is all well and good but the fact is that a vast number of us in this country, and growing numbers elsewhere, live in suburban areas (or in the boonies) because we have to. We have to live somewhere, and even if we wanted to live in the center of cities we couldn't all fit there. It seems to me that at least some of those on DU who gloat about current gas prices, and gleefully recommend that we all abandon the suburbs and buy bicycles, are way out of touch and totally missing the point. But we can all conserve as best we can, and try to make it through the rest of this current Long National Nightmare.

[Alexander]

37. Actually I've been driving more as part of my delivery job.

My car gets good mileage and I only drive about 30-40 miles every work day, which equates to about a gallon of gas per day.

I make between $40-70 in tips usually and extra base pay on top of that, so I burn through only a very tiny portion of my paycheck in a day's work.

[and-justice-for-all]

38. Not an option...

I have to drive 30 miles 2x a day when I am on shift. I am thinking about getting a small 4 cylinder, but is it worth it to do so? The car I drive to work is paid off, should I trade it in for a smaller car to drive to work in?

[Sherman A1]

44. Same boat here!

Commute is 46 miles round trip to work cross town. I was driving a 98 Ranger V-6 a(which has it's aches & pains) and felt that gas was eating me up. Bought a Yaris Hatchback in Feb after a year of doing my homework. The gas savings makes about 1/3rd to 1/2 of the car payment. Yes, insurance increased for a new car, sales tax was a pain and my personal property tax will also go up, but on the whole I was needing something newer (I did keep the truck for it's hauling ability) as the truck was looking at repairs that were going to be getting expensive for heater controls and such.

My suggestion is to look at your situation very hard, do the math, do your homework and make the best choice you can for you. Car deals will be out there as the economy slows.

[Cali_Democrat]

39. Yep. My driving distance to work suddenly shrank!!

Things are looking up!!!

:sarcasm:


Bush and his oil cronies are really plundering America.

[Skittles]

40. no

I have always followed the habits you describe :)

[earth mom]

41. I've gradually cut back over the last few years as the price of gas has gone up.

Now I plan most shopping trips ahead or have my husband shop on the way home from work. The few days a week I must get out, I make sure to fit in as many errands as possible each time. The thing that really bums me out is that I don't take those fun day trips I used to take where I'd go to a destination an hour or more away and hit the antique shops, thrift stores, used book stores in that town just for fun. I haven't taken a day trip like that in months and months and months whereas for years I used to get away like that every week to 10 days. :(

[michreject]

42. No

And at 10 MPG, it's killin me. I need the truck to pull my travel trailer.

[TreasonousBastard]

43. You're gonna hate me, but...

my two part-time gummint jobs reimburse me 51 cents a mile when I'm on the road, so I try to combine personal and bidness as much as possible. There are many times my mileage reimbursement is more than my pay.

[LWolf]

45. Yes, and I don't drive much to begin with.

Back and forth to work every day. I take back roads to stay out of traffic, do about 45 mph all the way there, with 4 stop signs.

When I need something, I go through town on the way home, which is about the same number of miles but heavy traffic and many stoplights.

These days I am not going anywhere on weekends. Just to work and back, stopping at the grocery store and gas station once a week on the way home.