You can drive, walk, bus, or bike...there are many options to get from here to there.

But choosing the bus or man power may save you a lot of money...to say nothing of helping the environment.

Avoiding the pump is a fast growing trend as Shannon Murphy explains in "Your Green Life."

Hang up your car keys... Many people are deciding to use alternative methods of transportation during their commute around town.

"It's fun, its good exercise; it's a quick way to get around."

Any vehicle owner has felt the effects of spiking gas prices.
Bike sales are booming...

"We have sold significantly more bikes already this year than we did last year."

So are bike repairs.

"A lot of people are getting the old bikes out of the garage that haven't been ridden for years, and that's the ones we're fixing up for them."

But even if your bike is new or freshly tuned up, if your commute includes a trip up Duluth's hillside, or over the bridge, you may want a little extra help from public transit.

For no extra cost, and minimal effort, your bike will get a front row seat on the city bus.

The Duluth Transit Authority has already seen a boost in their ridership, as well as the number of bikes on the front racks over the last few months, due in large part, to rising gas prices.

"We started the program in April of 1994, and I think that the number of bikes that we carried was around twenty–five hundred. Last year we carried over sixteen thousand."

This is not just a growing trend in the Twin Ports.

According to the American Public Transportation Association, or the A–P–T–A, 2007 saw the highest number of public transit users in fifty years.

That's up thirty– two percent since 1995...more than double the growth of the population.

The A–P–T–A also concluded that public transit saved 4.2 billion gallons of gasoline and 37 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions.

To put that into perspective, you would have to plant a forest larger than the state of Indiana to parallel those savings.

"Anytime that someone can use alternative transportation as a non fuel consuming mode has to help the environment."

As winter approaches many people will have to choose between heat and gas.

With that in mind experts say they expect the increased use of public transportation to continue.

In Duluth, meteorologist Shannon Murphy, the Northland's NewsCenter.

At this point DTA prices are not reflecting the rise in gas costs.