Jamie Hampton, a senior account executive at a public relations firm, said she moved to San Diego for the warm weather and initially hoped to get along without a car for just a year while she got her budget in order. That was some 3 1/2 years ago.
Now she bikes the 15-mile round trip to and from work most days. Meanwhile, Ortiz, who sells ads for the Chula Vista Star-News newspaper, often leaves his car at the office for daytime use and bikes home. That, he says, cuts his usual $90-a-week gas bill in half.
"I know that not everybody can commute by bike," Hampton said. "Sometimes it's too far, sometimes it's not feasible because there are kids."
Still, she says, people do have alternatives like carpooling and walking to both cut down on fuel use or increase the exercise they're getting.
"Doing it even one day a week is better than not doing it at all," she said.
About 40% of trips are less than two miles and 25% less than one mile. Those are perfect walking or bicycling distances.
Because of the time needed for the engine and pollution control devices to warm up, and because short trips tend to be in stop-and-go traffic, these also the distances where motor vehicles pollute the most and get the worst mileage.
A lot of us have gotten a start at running errands and short trips on foot or bicycle by this method:
pick one common destination within a mile or two of home or work--the closer, the better
work out a way to get there on foot or by bicycle
now always walk or bicycle to that destination from now on
