What will you do? will you drive less, get a smaller, more fuel efficient vehicle, take public transportation? just suck it up and don’t change a thing?
if you’re looking for a way to cut your gasoline consumption in the upcoming spring and summer this year why not try…
motorcycling
if you’re simply looking for efficient one person transportation with minimal cargo carrying capacity, why not get a decent used motorcycle?
cycling gives an incredible sense of freedom, you’re not trapped in a metal box, you feel more of a part of the world around you, and as a side benefit, it may improve your car driving skills, as you need to be extremely observant while riding a motorcycle, you’ll constantly be scanning your environment, evaluating conditions, and preparing to respond to them
motorcycles are far less visible than cars, so the first mindset you need to acquire is assume other drivers don’t see you, even after you made eye contact with them, most drivers look “through” a motorcyclist, they may “see” you but not actually see you
of course it goes without saying that you should always wear a helmet when riding (many states have mandatory helmet laws), full-face gives the best protection, and i strongly reccomend taking a Rider Training course, it’s a 3 day course on the weekend which will familiarize you with the basic concepts of motorcycling, and as an added advantage, if you pass the tests at the end of the course (a multiple choice written test and on the bike skills test), you are exempt from having to take the skills test when you go for your state motorcycle endorsement
motorcycling is a blast, and should make you a better driver overall, i highly reccomend it
as it stands right now, gas prices in Vermont are about $1.75/gal for 87 octane, and 93 octane is hovering around the $2.00/gal, luckilly my Neon takes 87, and the Yamaha Virago takes whatever i feel like feeding it
the Neon typically gets 30-38 MPG depending on my driving style (if i’m misewly i can get 40 MPG out of it, but driving that conservatively is just boring 
) has a 12 gallon fuel tank, and typically costs around $10-15 to fill
the Virago typically gets around 50 MPG, has a 3 gallon tank and costs around $5-6 to fill, is more maneuverable, faster to 60 MPH (around 3 seconds 0-60), and is just plain fun, it has a nice low, balanced center of gravity and i can easily putter around at idle and have the engine just pull me along, the music from the nice, rumbly 920CC V-Twin is quite pleasing as well, the downside to the Virago, well, any motorcycle actually, is i’d come off much worse in an accident
the Neon has the advantage of a steel safety cage, crumple zones, air conditioning for those truly hot days, and a decent stereo, and decent cargo capacity, the downside is i’m trapped inside a metal box that isolates me from the environment (but that rapidly turns into an advantage in the wet…)
so, if you’re looking for a cheap, efficient vehicle to reduce your fuel consumption, and can deal with the inherent limitations of motorcycles, it’s worth the risk, biking is just too addictively fun 
