Soaring Fuel Cost Spurs Rise In Trains Rider, Higher Bike Sales, Faster Travel Times

Los Angeles, CA (AHN) - California's freeways are being freed of congestion due to soaring gas prices, which in some states had jumped to $4 a gallon.

For residents who could still afford to drive, the lighter road traffic helped reduced their travel time. Data from the Freeway Performance Measurement System cited the Simi Valley to Los Angeles drive, which used to take 61 minutes in April 2007 when gas was under $3 a gallon. Since then, the drive time has been cut to 55.1 minutes a year after.

The morning drive from Riverside to Ontario in Inland Empire also slipped by almost 13 percent from 41.5 minutes last year to just 36.2 minutes last month.

Even accidents and breakdowns, a major cause of gridlock, is going down. Caltrans officials confirmed to the Los Angeles Times the decline in average number of cars on freeways like 91 and 405 by 6 percent.

On the opposite side of the equation, ridership on mass transit systems continue to shoot up. Commuters using the Metrolink trains increased to 46,000 passengers per weekday, up from 44,000 last year. Most of the train riders are vehicle owners who opted to save more by leaving their automobiles at home, said Metrolink spokeswoman Denise Tyrrell.

Another beneficiary of the rising fuel prices are bicycle stores which had been enjoying brisk sales. According to Barry Dahl, owner of the newly opened Barry's Bikes in Bismarck, which started operations April, more than 50 bicycles had been sold since he first opened shop.

Dusty bikes had been wiped off, while bikeless Americans have bought 18 million bicycles every year with an annual sales of $6 billion, Fred Clements, executive director of the National Bicycle Dealers Association in California, told the San Francisco Chronicle.

Rebecca Anderson, advocacy director of Trek Bicycle Corporation, added, "Millions of people have bicycles hanging in the garage and they're getting them down and riding them... People are looking at the bicycle as more than just a toy."