Many gas guzzlers are gathering dust

In May, Holly Kennedy bought an SUV. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

That very month, gasoline prices started to climb. And climb. And climb some more. By July, it was costing Kennedy $70 a week to fill her tank. Something had to give. So Kennedy parked her SUV and clambered aboard her mountain bike each day for her 10-mile commute from her Arlington home to the Burlington software company where she works. Even though her commute time lengthened from 15 minutes one way to 40, she found herself wishing she had tried the two-wheeled approach a lot sooner.

''It gives you time to unwind on the way home, and it gives you time to wake up on the way to work," she said.

In her view, the only downside has been the occasional verbal abuse -- and worse -- from motorists. ''The people that drive around here are still not very friendly to bikes," said Kennedy, 38. ''I get yelled at every day. I've gotten stuff thrown at me."

Maybe they're jealous. Maybe they're seething at the sight of someone who is not teetering on the verge of bankruptcy after paying a king's ransom for a gallon of gasoline. But they had better get used to it, because Holly Kennedy has plenty of company these days. By bicycle, by scooter, by train, by foot, by strategies large and small, more and more fed-up motorists are forsaking their vehicles and exploring ways to avoid being guzzled by gas.

Take Lou Orfanos, 23. His total expenditure for gasoline this summer was $10. Granted, Orfanos doesn't have much of a commute -- he lives in South Boston and works at a technology services company 2 miles away -- but the key is that Orfanos bought a motor scooter in April. It gets 85 miles to the gallon, he said, so he only had to fill it up five times all summer long, at $2 a pop. That's the sort of thing that tends to quiet the skeptics who had asked Orfanos why he would want to ride a motor scooter when he already had a car.

''The high gas prices kind of helped to justify the purchase," he said. ''Now it's, 'Ha-ha, I spent $10 on gas this summer.' "

That sound you hear is the grinding of teeth from gridlocked commuters on the Massachusetts Turnpike and the Southeast Expressway who are pouring greenbacks into their gas tanks at an ever-increasing rate. A gallon of regular unleaded gasoline was selling for an average of $3.08 in Massachusetts on Friday, up from $2.54 a month ago and $1.87 a year ago, according to the American Automobile Association. ''For the first time, we really did see gas prices affect people's behavior," said Art Kinsman, spokesman for AAA Southern New England. ''I do hear more people talking about hybrid vehicles, about combining trips and errands, at least reconsidering other commuting options" such as taking the MBTA and carpooling.

At this stage, evidence of the trend away from motor vehicles is still largely anecdotal. Amtrak spokesman Cliff Black said via e-mail that although train ridership is ''strong and growing at a predicted, moderate pace," there are no data linking that growth to gasoline prices.

Joe Pesaturo, spokesman for the MBTA, said the T is seeing the usual September ridership surge when college students return and summer vacations end.

But the Massachusetts Bicycle Coalition has seen a spike in applicants for its bicycle skills classes and an increase in the number of calls seeking the best bike routes to various workplaces, executive director Dorie Clark said.

Though gasoline prices have dropped slightly of late, it is not enough to dissuade many from their car-avoidance strategies. Many said gas price increases gave them the necessary push to take lifestyle-changing steps they had long yearned for. Not all of the changes are as dramatic as swapping a car for a motor scooter or a bicycle, but they add up to substantial savings in most cases -- no small thing in a metropolitan area seen in one report as having the highest cost of living in the country.

Bruce McCarthy, 41, of Acton, had often told himself that he really ought to take the train to work, that he really ought to work at home one day a week, and that he really ought to compare prices when he buys gas. Now, in response to soaring prices at the pumps, he's doing all three.

''There are a lot of side benefits," said McCarthy, a product manager at ATG, a Cambridge firm that provides software to companies that run e-commerce sites. ''I'm getting a lot of walking done, which is good for me. I get a lot of work done on the train. . . . I feel more relaxed and more productive."

Of course, if you live in a suburb and work in a suburb, as many do in high-tech Massachusetts, mass transit can be an elusive option. That's where 24-year-old Matt Severance finds himself. Each day, he drives 45 miles from his home in Northborough to his job at Putnam Investments in Andover.

''I'm dropping 60 bucks a week just driving to work, not to mention going other places, which brings it to 85 bucks a week," said Severance. ''It's definitely hurting my bank account. You're spending an hour or two in a car, which is depressing enough. And then to pay through the nose for gas."

He is considering carpooling with a co-worker who lives in Uxbridge.

With prices in the stratosphere, even the most modest gas-saving strategies suddenly make sense. Andi Stern, a 46-year-old acupuncturist from Sherborn, said she now makes half a tank last for two weeks -- compared with the three-quarters of a tank per week she used to use -- simply by driving at the speed limit at all times and by accelerating gently after stopping in traffic.

Christine Junge, a 27-year-old medical writer from Jamaica Plain, combines shopping errands with family visits; if she is visiting her in-laws in Weymouth, she will also swing by the Christmas Tree Shops and Home Depot in Avon.

Tony O'Baoill, 54, an automobile service manager from Watertown, has begun bicycling to work in Allston. But he makes sure that his car is properly tuned, so it will require less gas when he uses it, and he, too, now combines half-a-dozen errands on a single trip.

''Driving has become, for me, not casual," he said. ''With gas cheap, I'd think nothing of hopping into the car to go to the store for one thing, but I've eliminated that completely. No more casual driving."

Don Aucoin can be reached at aucoin@globe.com.