We can do three things immediately to reduce our gasoline consumption and cut overall costs of commuting: public transportation, (light rail), car pooling and hypermiling. Hypermiling, or deliberately reducing your speed, and coasting whenever possible, is rapidly becoming the easiest, fastest way to save on fuel costs.

Five dollars a gallon for fuel is cutting into families entertainment and food budgets, which is making parents more inclined to car pool with colleagues than ever before. Phoenix, where I live, wisely invested (after much debate against it) in light rail, which opens this Christmas. Even the public transportation sector, in all areas, ridership is up.

Nearly all large companies, and now many smaller ones, are setting up company web pages to help employees find carpool partners. All major cities offer websites to connect people who want to car pool. In Phoenix, Valley Metro is the bus/light rail provider, you can find your city's site by googling "car pooling and" type your city. These web sites often have calculators so you can see how much it is currently costing you to drive alone, versus car pooling. Car pooling with one person will cut your commuting cost in half. For those spending $200 a week in gas, car pooling puts $100 back into your budget, which many families will need to offset the higher cost of transporting food.

When it is your turn behind the wheel, start hypermiling. Hypermiling.com is a great place to start your education on how to increase your miles per gallon by at least 25% (and sometimes even 50%) by following some simple driving habits. I make couponing a game to help save at the grocery store, now I play the hypermiling game every time I'm behind the wheel.

Anyone sitting through traffic school (darn those camera tickets!) learns that traffic lights are timed to the speed limit. This really only works on long streets with many lights, but the system does work. If you drive EXACTLY the speed limit, you will hit all green lights. Try it once or twice and see if it works for you. I find it true except rush hour traffic.

Rush hour stop and go: try to limit coming to a complete stop, especially if you have an standard transmission, put it in neutral, coasting costs you NOTHING. Keep your eyes on the light ahead, if it is yellow, start coasting. Watch the person in front of you. For every second you do not see their brake light, they are using fuel, while you are NOT! Same applies in freeway rush hour. Drive no more than the speed limit and let other cars pass you (in one minute you will notice the cars behind you slowing to the speed limit, so you not only save money, you set a good example and absolutely avoid speeding tickets!).

Avoid idling, plan your route along right hand turns. UPS changed its truck routes so drivers are always turning right to get to their destination. This rerouting alone, saved the company 20% in fuel not spent idling in left hand turn lanes. Notice too, UPS drivers keep their doors open, like our U.S. post office drivers. Air conditioning in delivery vehicles is a luxury (but I do notice police are not required to do the same).

Let the gas hogs pass you by. While you coast, think about the newer car you now need to buy, and educate yourself on alternative fuel cars. Gas will never be cheap again (back to the China example), so we might as well bite the bullet now and SAVE on consumption. Some feel more secure with a full tank of gas. I say buy only what you need, and you will see the price begin to stablize as our consumption goes down.

Learn more about this author, Kathryn O'Hehir.
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