I've decided not to buy a car now because of gas prices.

I answered no because I was already attempting to reduce my driving simply for environmental reasons that had nothing to do with the price of gas.

My husband had to change jobs because of the price of gas. He used to deliver newspapers. Newspaper delivery companies and pizza and other restaurants that offer delivery are beginning to have a hard time retaining drivers. When he first started we spent about $60 a week on gas, before he quit it was $140-$160 a week with no raise in pay. Not to mention we usually had to spend $1500-$2000 on car maintenance, especially keeping the front end aligned because of potholes, which our gas taxes are supposed to fix.

My driving habits are mainly determined by the other people in my life - the disabled people I drive around my kid, and my own disabilities. My knees are bad, so I can only walk two blocks, and I can't stand for very long. The lineups that are ubiquitous in Ontario are very painful for me. Thus I use drive throughs whenever possible.

I just bite the bullet and pay.

On the other hand, the only way to force society to cut back on pollution and fossil fuels is to raise prices. They will never do it voluntarily.

I am welcoming the higher gas prices as it is making me (and others) really think before I drive. Also what I am finding is it is giving everyone a legit excuse to get together and car pool. So if my spouse can drive me in then I can generally find someone at the office to drive me home. The unfortunate thing though is the small businesses who are losing out as our family is shopping at Wal-Mart more and the big malls as we simply can't afford to do all of the driving around necessary to go to the little shops. Others are doing the same thing. E.

Being without public transportation means that we are generally reliant upon a nasty old vehical, Further, our family of 4 owns 2 of them because he starts work at 5 a.m. and I deal with kids, their activity and our lives and the rush off to work p/t.

While single and without kids, I went for 10 years without a driver's licence( ( and 8 years w/o tv and no computer, just a typewriter) and wish that I could live that way again. If we had public transportation our decisions would always side with the environment. Ironically, the reason that we are living semi-rural is our life-force with the environment.

We don't ever shop at Wal-Mart and in fact, choose more often than ever to buy local.

There are many things you can do to reduce your gas consumption. Even in a gas guzzling, mega monster SUV. Look up HYPERMILING on the internet. I still drive just as far and just as often as I did 2 months ago, but by hypermiling I have managed to reduce my gas consumption by 30% so far. (For me that's a saving of about $30 a week.) I'm sure I can get it even more.

It take practise and hardwork, but it can be done.

Fuel costs are changing the family driving habits and they will continue to change them. My wife and I attempt to cycle to work, where we can juggling daycare, etc with kids. We recently ditched our pickup and tent trailer in favour of a 4 cylinder station wagon and a utility trailer.

Gas prices will only continue to get worse. Google PEAK OIL. Peak oil will affect every aspect of our lives from transport, to food prices to our standard of living. Oil production follows a bell curve where it increases on the way up, peaks and then decreases by a conservative 2% a year. Right now we are at the top of the curve. Jeff Rubrin of CIBC World markets predicts $2.25 per litre by 2012. We are about to realize that we have wasted resources.

I highly recommend taking a long look at your life and how you can prepare for the storm ahead.