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Every week, the cost of gas seems to go higher and higher, and frankly, people are starting to get a little fed up.

“What are your feelings about the cost of gas?”

“It sucks.”

“It’s outrageous.”

“They’re brutal.”

“I think it’s kind of hopeless.”

“It’s out of control.”

“It makes me angry.

“It pisses me off. Yes, it does, it does.”

Really, there’s not much you and I can do about the high cost of gas, except not drive. But with the latest spike in gas prices, people are starting to do just that: Biking to work, walking to the bus stop, and piling in and out of carpools in record numbers, just to avoid paying $4.50 per gallon, or more, to fill up their tanks.

“I think that people are probably not gassing up as much. They’re forced to use public transportation, which is probably good.”

“I’m taking the trolley.”

“Walking, I guess.”

“I get a little walk, in between instead of just going to the next-closest transit stop.”

“I know a couple people that I work with have been riding their bike to work, and they’ve lost weight and they look good, so that’s a plus.”

Andy Reid is a domain administrator for a San Diego internet company. Last year, Andy got fed up with the cost of gas and wanted a new workout routine, so he started biking the 15 miles to and from work.

“Without having to pay for gas, car insurance, all those other fees that coincide with owning a vehicle, or even bus fare. I probably save probably 300 – 500 dollars per month.

“The gas prices? I sort of laugh everytime I go through a gas station and see what are they at? 4:60? 4:70 in some places? I usually take time to wave at the cars at the red lights when I'm biking.”

“I have actually in a couple months seen a significant increase in bike riders. It increases every day. And you see the ones decked out, you can tell they're out there for exercise. But you see a lot of just – they're out there on their mountain bikes, they've got their clothes to change into at work, and I think it's a good effect so far, just seeing more people on the road, out there on the streets, getting to work by various other means.”

And there are other benefits to riding your bike. According to Andy, the ladies just love it.

“The biggest danger is definitely people, mostly of the female persuasion just throwing themselves at you. I mean car doors will open up as you're driving along, what you think is an empty street. They dive off buildings – it's insane. Other than that, you have to worry about San Diego drivers, the busses, random animals, and some homeless people.”

With people like Andy actually taking to the streets on bikes, some researchers have suggested that as the price of gas goes up, obesity across the board in the United States goes down. In fact, one researcher found that just a 1$ increase in the cost of gas obesity would decrease in the United States by 7-9 percent.

So when you really think about it, more exercise, fewer trips to restaurants, and less pollution for everyone, maybe the high price of gas is not such a bad thing?

“Andy!!”