Higher gas prices. Any changes in your 50+'r driving/bicycling habits?

just like last yr I try not to move the car for a week at a time in the warm months
last yr i biked 1500 miles of errands ytd I'm at about 650 miles

I am using the bike for more errands and around town stuff

My wife is now driving her economy compact almost exclusively, instead of the Town and Country.

We are purposely trying to combine several trips into one.

I don't put the bike in the car and drive to rides much any more.

I'm kinda stuck -- my commute is a 30-mile mostly highway drive, one way. So I'm still driving about the same amount, but my cruise control is now on 70 instead of 80, and I concentrate on driving for economy (lots of coasting, for example). I did buy a more fuel-efficient car in January, and am I glad I did!

We are trying to combine out trips to the store as well. Don't drive across town just for one item. So far it's been hard on the wife having to plan. :lol:

I hope to use the hybrid more often but since we pass a Wal-mart & King Sooper on the way home it makes it easy to stop, just as long as we remember our list....:thumb:

We only use the car for errends when we can combine 2 or 3 stops. We use the bikes for trips to the grocery store, if it is for just a few items. The wife just put gas in her car today for the first time in 5 weeks. Helps living close to work.

Also, we are using mail/online ordering for items for which we used to drive to the shopping center.

It occurred to me that it takes about a gallon of gas to get there and back, and the delivery charges are about $5, so, with not having the wear and tear on the car, and not having to spend time driving and buy gas, we make money on the delivery.

And, the UPS truck goes by anyway, so we are not adding to their costs.

I've cut down on driving my car, mostly by taking fewer trips over the weekend. My cycling has increased very slighty, only because I now pedal to the convenience store (6 mile round trip) for milk and bread instead of taking the car.

No change here. I have always tried to minimize my driving and to bike, walk/jog, or ride transit whenever I can reasonably do so.

No change here. My primary car gets 30+ mpg. When gas goes up 50 cents a gallon, that increases my cost by 1.67 cents per mile. So a 40 mile round trip costs me an additional 67 cents.

As I've always keep my driving to modest numbers, the higher gas prices are having only a small impact on me.

If I lived 4-5 miles from my workplace, I would commute on occasion by bike. But being over 12 miles each way, nearly all of which would be on 50 mph roads, that's not an attractive option for me.

My wife drives a '96 Camry and seldom gases up due to excellent
trip consolidation and close proximity to the important stores.

I drive a '98 Tacoma 2WD. I used to buy 8 to 8.5 gallons of gas every 10
days. I'm on my fourth tank of gas this year...last fillup was 05/11/2008.
We're using the money that isn't going into the tanks for filling the refridgerator
instead, so we're still getting the short end of the stick so to speak.

Not much change here. 95% of my rides start from home. I'm retired and we don't go too many places as it is, so it's only a minor gripe.

Although I do feel sorry for my kids and grandkids who are feeling it.

I'd love to forego the car and ride the bike to work but that just isn't realistic for my situation.
So, I'm just telecommuting more while the boss allows it.
But I'm still riding about 200 miles a month so that hasn't changed

I answered "something else" because the change I have made is I now commute to work in addition to my regular riding. It is a 22 mile round trip on mostly flat ground. I can average about 17 MPH, depending on the wind direction, on my road bike and about 14 MPH on my touring bike. Saved 40 bucks in gas last week!

I work from wherever I'm at, and I live in a first tier suburb of the cities, so when I'm at home I can go 2-3 weeks on a tank.

In the summer, my main place is up north, and I have to go into the cities once a week for a couple of days. So that's 180 miles a week right there. When I'm up north, I don't put on many miles unless I'm really going* somewhere to see something. In general, though, I don't drive too much.

In Kansas I put on a ton of miles. I'd say 50 on an average day, 120 a few days of the week. 300 mile days once or twice a month. Once I get settled down there I should have a lot fewer errands and things to get, and it should decrease my mileage substantially.

But I'm kinda glad gas prices are high. I don't want devastation to happen to people, and I wish it had happened more slowly. But I think some good things will come out of it, and since I assume oil will run dry at some point it may take high gas prices to get us to explore other fuels.

Another interesting trend has happened. The Twin Cities has some really bad urban sprawl, with people regularly working 20-40 from where they live. There seems to be a lot of moms pulling kids out of day care. I guess they ran the numbers and realized that it might be more cost effective for one of them to stay home with the kids when you combine the gas prices with the day care prices. Or, one parent has been layed off...

'Something else'.

I'm riding more and driving less, but that's not the result of increased fuel prices. It's because I've fallen in love with riding.

I'm buzzed for sure that a side-effect of it all is a decreased drain on my wallet, at a time when I'd otherwise be having an increased drain on my wallet!

:D

Since I don't have a car, I only use gas for the lawn mower. I'm stretching that out a few days longer between mowings though. Can't pass up a good excuse!:)

One thing I am doing, is keeping a much closer eye on my bike when it's parked! I figure the odds of theft increase with the price of gas.

Something I've always tended to do, is keep a grocery list.
IF I happen to be going by the grocery store for some other reason, I'll stop in on the way home and pick up a couple items that I can carry easily, to reduce the amount of trips with an uncomfortably heavy load.

I really haven't changed my driving habits due to the higher prices. I still have the long commute to work but that will end with my retirement in October.

I've always shared rides with others to out of town bike events and will continue to do so. I do plan on using the bike for more around town errands after retirement.

I planned to switch to bike commuting most work days following my tour, but my crash two weeks ago stopped that for now. Once my fractured rib heals, I'll be out there commuting.

My work commute is 23 miles each way, but I drive a Honda Insight and get 65+ mpg, so it's not too bad.

I've been doing more training rides from home, but still have some long drives to event rides. With the bike(s) on the rack (instead of on the luggage tray behind the seats) mileage goes down to 60 mpg.

Rick / OCRR

car-lite is tough for me because I'm in a rural area 15 miles from town (Morgan Hill). I used to bike commute but now "virtual commute". The "big city" (downtown San Jose) is 30 miles away but I'm 15 miles from light rail line. So I've
-traded in one driving trip per week to MH for a biking trip
-started using bike/light rail to get to downtown SJ
-omitted frivolous driving trips to town/consoldiated trips.

I only fill up once a month, so I don't have a good day-to-day feel for the price of gas.

Paul

I used to hand the cashier a $20 which filled my lawnmower gas cans with some to spare for the car. Nowadays I hand her $30...it doesn't even fill the cans.:bang:

I don't have a car anymore,but I did get a moped. For longer distances and higher speeds
In and around town I still use my bike, but with severe ostio-athrites in both feet I don't know
how much longer I can still push the pedals.

The adverse weather has reduced the cycling miles greatly. Rain and more rain. Driving has been reduced somewhat by better planning of shopping trips, etc.

I used to hand the cashier a $20 which filled my lawnmower gas cans with some to spare for the car. Nowadays I hand her $30...it doesn't even fill the cans.:bang:

Went to the gas station and asked the clerk for $5 worth of gas. The guy turned around and f**ted. Said that will be $5, sir.

I answered something else.
All my biking involves driving also. High gas prices have curtailed some very long car trips to nice Rail to Trails. We used to go regularly for long weekends to MN. That is 4 hours each way driving. We now stay closer to home. We also cancelled a car/bike trip to Idaho.
Driving a car was an incidental cost. It no longer is.

I DO NOT like to bike in the traffic but the gas saveings of 50 % of commute to the forest //I find that the rt/1 traffic is still as inpolite as ever despite all the new bikers commuting./

I decided to save on gas by just never leaving my apartment. But I guess I'll have to take the trash out one month. I ran out of food in May but have been surviving by eating the couch. ;)

I decided to save on gas by just never leaving my apartment. But I guess I'll have to take the trash out one month. I ran out of food in May but have been surviving by eating the couch. ;)

I've been using a magic carpet lately. Nice smooth ride, tip-top mileage.

For me, this increase hasn't caused much change...yet. When gas went up a couple of years ago, I began changes in how I use my truck...an F150 beast, but paid for. I kayak fish a lot. Used to drive 100 miles round trip to my favorite lake. Now, I travel 12 miles round trip and fish the lake that adjoins our subdivision. Its caused a change in how I fish and the fish I target, but its been fun.

I hadn't been cycling for years. Used to do 150 miles a week, but, for various reasons, I did little for the past 15 years. Recently, I got out my Nishiki Cresta, did a few minor repairs, including new tires, new chain, and rebuilding the bottom bracket, and began cycling again. The goal now is to build a trailer to pull with either the Nishiki or the Gary Fisher I also own and cart the kayak down to the lake.

I use about 3/4 a tank of gas per month in my truck. Its paid for and it makes no sense to get another vehicle now. Can't afford payments, doubt that I can find a used one for the money I would have available after selling the truck to buy anything as reliable, and still need it to haul stuff around. But, I want to cut gas usage even more.

Nope, it hasn't changed a bit. I haven't owned a car for almost 10 years. However, I guess you might say it changed a little bit since I just bought my bike in March. Prior to that it was walk, or ride a bus. Now I can go places that were too far to walk, or where a bus didn't go. Metro just put bike racks on the front of their buses in January which can broaden my scope, but the racks aren't designed for bikes with front fenders. Now how stupid is that??????:wtf:
One small note, I did put some gas in my Mom's car a couple of weeks ago after she took me to the doctor for some procedures that required sedation. $54 for 13.5 gallons just scared the car right out of me.:eek: Up until '99 I used to commute 50 miles round trip. I'd be eating peanut butter sandwiches every day if I was still doing that.

My riding plan has not changed due to gas prices. My teenagers look at bicycling as too hard and impractical to link up with their friends. My wife has expressed interest again, but I am not holding my breath.

I've read two different oil industry analyst projections in the past couple of days where both predict gas prices will rise to $7/gallon in the USA. One said by 2011, the other by 2012. One projected that approximately 10 million cars will be off of the highways by then, and new car sales will be down by over 20%, with light truck sales (i.e. SUVs) being down 50%.

Gas going to $7/gallon will change a lot of things in the USA. May really hurt home values in rural subdivisions, as more people will want to live where there is mass transit, or at least cheaper commutes. It will be interesting to see if this does translate to more bicycle usage.

May really hurt home values in rural subdivisions, as more people will want to live where there is mass transit, or at least cheaper commutes. It will be interesting to see if this does translate to more bicycle usage.

The attempt to move closer will drive up property prices and push out lower income residents as the inner-city, and in the case of larger cities, from inner-loop neighborhoods as those are are gentrified. Affordable housing within a reasonable commute then becomes an issue for families wishing to move closer to work centers. And, there are limits, both monetary and how much availble land/housing is available for those moving in. Too many, including my family, have too much invested in suburban housing to make a move, though those living farther out may out of necessity.

A reasonable scenario would be a push for improved mass transit, more than likely rubber tired early on just because of the huge infrastructure costs of rail and light rail. Bikes then come into play as a way to get to transit centers. We've already seen that in some areas of Houston. The park and ride lot bike racks are, if not full, packed tight. Metro has increased the number of buses serving some areas to meet the increased demand and is having to look at doing even more.

I'm seeing more bikes parked at supermarket racks in my subdivision, many with wire racks and handle bar baskets. Those bike rack areas were almost devoid of bikes most of the time only a month or so ago. One of the local bike shops told me that sales of baskets and rear racks are up and I'm seeing more activity on the greenbelt trails...so much so I've begun developing my training routes to avoid the trails, except where they either connect to streets I want to travel or go under major roads. Hopefully, the trend will continue, but the heat in the Texas Gulf Coast is such that many will not give up their air conditioned vehicles, even though they are halfway to the store before the cool air kicks in.

Like to get gas back to $2 per gallon? Sharing a ride in a car with one other person essentially does that. Sharing a ride with two other folks drops it back to $1.33 per gallon (assuming $4 per gallon gas cost).

There are SO many areas in which we can save costs, given just a bit of slight inconvenience and pre-planning.

Last year my wife worked on one side of town and I worked on the other. She drives a Saturn and I have an F150. Now she works in the same hospital I do. even with a big rise in gas prices, I am saving money this year. I either ride my bike or ride with her. It is a little shy of 30 mile round trip so each trip would cost me 2 gallons or 9 bucks for each trip in my truck. Thats just silly. Gonna buy a prius and up grade my Grand prix next year.

Our son is in Europe this summer so have been using his little car to commute. Conciously trying to combine trips and do them in order that produces the fewest miles. I am working towards building up an errand/commuter/training bike so that some errands around home can be done w/o driving. My CAAD9 and vintage '82 Colnago aren't that well suited to the task and I would prefer not to let them out of my sight, even locked up.

In the meantime my office is relocating to the other side of town (bad news) not far from where my wife already works (good news, car pool together) and they are talking about things like flex hours, work at home days, 4 day work weeks, etc. Nothing concrete re that issue yet but at least they recognize what the relo/gas prices mean for us.

BTW re sport touring/training/errand bike I had a few different frames in mind: Surly Pacer, Soma Smoothie, maybe Salsa...any opinions? I KNOW a complete bike could be had for cheaper but (1) what's the fun in that and (2) how else can I make the CAAD9 lighter/faster than by doing parts swaps, right?

I try to drive as little as possible by combining trips. But the biggest change will be joining a vanpool to work which will cost about $10.00 a month. That's right -- ten dollars a month. I'll have to get up before the crack of dawn to meet the van, but I'll save about $200 dollars a month on gas, every month. $200 dollars that I can save, or spend on bike stuff. :)

Something else. They closed my local mtb trails due to fire danger. I love hauling the bike up to Hurkey creek, but it takes about two gallons of gas. I would be going up two to three times a week instead of once a week with gas prices what they are now.

Right now I'm sitting here wondering if I am dedicated enough to do my return commute in 100 degree heat. I could take the bike on light rail home... but the way I'm thinking now, I think I'll try it. With me, its not about the gas as much as I have really began to enjoy biking to work. Its only 11 miles each way, but when I arrive I am really awake - and when I get home I feel like I've actually done something positive.