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Midstaters ditch cars for other rides

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Wanda Jones was tired of paying $50 to fill up the tank of her SUV. So she bought a scooter. Now her 24-mile commute to work at Penn State Dickinson School of Law costs her about $4 a week in gas. "It's wonderful," she said. "People laugh at me and I say, 'Go ahead and laugh. I'll be laughing at you at the gas pumps.' "

Jones isn't the only one making a change in her commuting habits. Mass transit officials and agencies that help organize car pools in the region say interest in alternative transportation is rising quickly.

Money is part of that motivation.

And there is a lot to be saved -- $2.3 million a day in the four-county Harrisburg region, according to a Patriot-News analysis.

People who commute to work alone burn 108 million gallons of gas a year, according to the analysis that looked at the gasoline used by the 423,396 people in Cumberland, Dauphin, Lebanon and York counties who said they drive alone to work.

How much is 108 million gallons? Enough to fill a storage tank 100 feet around and as tall as the Empire State Building. Put another way, it would take 7.3 million barrels of oil to make that gas, enough to fill three and a half super tankers.

On the flip side, a 1 percent drop in solo riders would remove 8,400 vehicles from midstate roads each day and reduce fuel demand by more than 1 million gallons a year.
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This is actually a good result of high gas prices. The question is, should they fall would people continue what they are doing now?
JanforGore

1 response // Midstaters ditch cars for other rides

  • Biking is a wonderful way to commute, my wife does it as much as she can. Problem is with everyone in an SUV and on a cell phone, she feels terribly unsafe. We need more bike lanes for the people who want to use them.
    jason1973tl

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