Harriet Baskas Travel writer

If you feel the same way about gas prices as the graffiti artist who scribbled “F*!# gas” across a south Florida service station fuel pump, maybe you're ready to take action. Joan Bougher has. This past Memorial Day weekend, she left a service station with a pricey tank of gas — and a plan.

“That $40.40 bill triggered a light-bulb moment for me,” she said.

The 65-year old Spokane, Wash., resident used to drive everywhere. In June, she decided to park her car and learn to ride the bus. Her friends thought she was “a little crazy,” but, armed with a bus pass, Bougher found her way to the mall, the grocery store, the doctor, the dentist, the hairdresser “way across town” and to her part-time job downtown. "It turns out that it takes just three minutes longer to get to work on the bus than in my car,” she said.

Now a regular on the bus, Bougher can spot the “newbies,” and she says there are lots of them: "Almost every day, but especially on Monday mornings, there are new people getting on the bus and asking lots of questions about how to get around.”

Across the nation
According to the American Public Transportation Association (APTA), Americans took nearly 85 million more trips on public transportation in the first three months of 2008 than they did during the same time period in 2007. Meanwhile, rising gas prices have prompted Americans to cut back on driving.

The Federal Highway Administration recently noted that Americans drove 1.4 billion fewer highway miles in April 2008 than they did in April 2007.

Some of those “missing miles” have undoubtedly been absorbed into carpools. In 2006, the Census Bureau found about 10 percent of Americans carpooled to work. No official counts have been done since, but Marge Gasnick, who heads the RideShare program at the Mid-America Regional Council (MARC) in Kansas City, Mo., says interest is rising as fast as the price of gas. She said carpool inquiries spiked after Hurricane Katrina, but dropped off a few months later. Now, something is very, very different. “It’s not just the gas prices, it's the economy itself. Food prices and prices in general. People are more stretched with their budgets and trying to find ways to spend less money,” she said.

Video   Travelers switch to trains July 3: With gas prices on the rise, more people are taking to trains and other forms of public transportation. NBC’s Tom Costello reports on this growing trend. Today show

While it's more difficult to account for carpools vs. bus ticket sales, Gasnick says, “I can tell you that in just the last month, registrations on our carpool Web site have gone up significantly. At the beginning of 2008 we had about 2,000 people in our database [of people looking to join carpools]. Now we have more than 3,500.” The agency also has been fielding more calls from employers trying to find ways to help their workers keep a lid on commuting costs.

The Well-Mannered Traveler Much-needed help for holiday travelers Airport slip-ups can be a federal offense Flight crews, airports ready for emergency Travelers angry over the cost of fueling up Avoid the boot: Helping parents, kids fly right Salvaging your miserable summer break How to avoid the summer air travel blues Airlines cracking down on carry-ons Weighty issues for air travelers More Well-Mannered Traveler columns

Carpooling — and critiquing hairdos
Jeff Madden, who works at a Kansas City marketing and design firm, is new to carpooling. During the four years he drove — alone — the 50 miles to and from work, he'd often think about carpooling, but says, “when gas prices hit $3 a gallon, I started getting serious.”

Madden's co-worker, Jody Moore, felt the same way. So about a year ago they joined forces in an informal carpool. They switch driving responsibilities each week and entertain each other on the commute by critiquing the graphic design of roadside billboards (“sort of work-related”) and the big hairdos of other drivers (“not work-related, but fun”). Moore says that while her husband had some reservations about her joining a carpool, he's all for it now that he sees how much money they're saving. “It's like I got a $100 a month raise,” she said.

MORE FROM TRAVEL

Travel Section Front

How to raise a globe-trotter Top celebrity vineyards America's best beer festivals For China’s new Midases, gold tableware Easy, breezy travel beauty tips Send us photos of your favorite place! Couple accused of beach sex: Let us go home Singapore salon has $1,000-per-lb. teas '100 Things' co-author dies at 47 High-end pet lodges popular with owners Travel Section Front   Add Travel headlines to your news reader: