Rising energy costs driving lifestyle changes

Ridership on Dallas Area Rapid Transit light rail and buses rose 9% to 10% over last year, the Dallas Business Journal reports. The city's van pool program has also seen soaring interest. "With the price of gas going up, we've seen a big increase in requests for that in the last couple months," Doug Allen, DART's executive vice president of planning and development, said. "We started to see that when gas hit about $2.65 a gallon. Now it's flirting with $3. But $2.65 was the tipping point for the latest increase in interest."

It's a similar situation in other cities. In Pittsburgh, the Port Authority of Allegheny County told the Business Times it had seen its highest ridership in 41 months. In the Greensboro area of North Carolina, ridership was up 9 percent in September, The Business Journal serving the Greater Triad Area reports. The Austin Business Journal reports ridership on that city's system has increased across the board.

"It's very clear from the people we've talked to that gas prices are beginning to play a role [in this increase]. Some people are taking a second look and deciding to try transit," Rob Smith of Cap Metro told the Austin Business Journal.

In the San Francisco Bay area and some other metropolitan areas, that high price of gas has meant a return to carpooling, this time with a twist, the East Bay Business Times reports.

The Bay Area has seen an increase in "car sharing." The service run by City CarShare, a San Francisco nonprofit, has grown to 52 pods -- pickup and dropoff sites with one to six vehicles available for short-term use. Its membership has grown to 4,300 people using 90 vehicles.

"Last year was the busiest year we've ever had," Marci McGuire said of the 22-year-old Bishop Ranch Transportation Centre, which promotes carpooling, vanpooling and public transit use, among other options for 365 companies that employ 25,000 Bay Area workers. "It started getting busy 18 months ago and it hasn't slowed down since."

The Philadelphia Business Journal reports that one New Jersey Senator is trying to change the gasoline equation in his state by allowing some businesses to buy a gasoline debit card, locking in the price for gas to the time the card is bought.

"Basically, what you are doing is pre-paying at a particular price that it may be at that time and if the price goes up you're covered if you already paid," state Sen. Anthony Bucco said of his proposal. "It's for businesses that have fleets of trucks or salesmen on the road that want to make sure they can get [gas] at the best possible price or individuals."

Meanwhile, more workers nationwide are seeing the advantage to working at home, and more employers are interested in letting them. Donna Dailey, consultant for the Denver Regional Council of Governments, told the Denver Business Journal queries from businesses about telework had tripled since late in the summer. The Denver Business Journal reports that the trend isn't confined to its metropolitan area. Silicon Valley has seen a revival in telework as well. Nationwide, the number of teleworkers rose to 45.1 million in 2005 from 3.4 million in 1990.

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