I can't tell. I come across other commuters very intermittently, sometimes none for weeks, sometimes several in a week, even during the winter. So I don't know if the ones I've seen recently are due to gas prices or not.

I felt bad for a guy I saw yesterday. He was obviously a newbie. He was at least on the right side of the road, but he was riding in the dirt shoulder (there's only about a 1' paved shoulder there; I tend to ride about 1' into the lane), and laboring with a bike that was WAY too small for him, looked like maybe a 20" or 24" tire. Maybe it was his kid's bike! I just rang my bell and said "Hi" as I passed him, he replied "Hey, how's it going", and that was the end of it. I would have liked to give him some advice, but didn't know how without sounding condescending, so I just hoped that my example would mean something. (And even that statement sounds condescending, eh?)