A ticket to a lower gas bill

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For Daniel Aviles, the turning point came when gas hit $2.50 a gallon earlier this year. That's when he decided to end his decade-long routine of driving to work and started commuting by train.

"I drive an SUV, and it was consuming about $20 a day," Aviles said recently as he waited for NJ Transit's 8:26 a.m. express train from Trenton to his job in New Brunswick. "I spend $18 a day on the train."

As gas prices continue to set records at the pump, more and more commuters are ditching longtime commuting habits and boarding trains and buses to get to work.

While NJ Transit officials say it's difficult to measure the precise effect of escalating gas prices on ridership, they acknowledged that in recent months they have seen the number of passengers move in sync with rising gas prices. And with forecasts showing little chance for a let-up this summer, that trend could continue -- meaning a major shift in habits for a state that has a long love affair with the automobile.

For the first three months of this year, preliminary numbers show a 5.3 percent increase in rail ridership over the same period last year, according to NJ Transit.

That comes after the number of passengers increased by 2.2 percent during the last three months of 2007. In October, the number of rail passengers hit a record 23 million, according to NJ Transit. On average, gas prices that month were around $2.60 a gallon. Gas in New Jersey now averages $3.649 a gallon.

Buses are also more crowded, with a 1.8 percent increase in ridership during the first quarter of 2008, according to NJ Transit.

"It's difficult to attribute the increase to one single factor, but what we've heard is that gas prices are a factor, especially among first-time transit takers," said Dan Stessel, a spokesman for NJ Transit.

Aviles said he initially began carpooling with a co-worker to help reduce the cost of driving to his computer analyst job in New Brunswick from his home in Bensalem, Pa.

"We alternated days," he said. "That eased the pain a little."

When his colleague was transferred to Camden in January, Aviles decided to take the train rather than drive the 43 miles from Bensalem and foot the entire gas bill.

The popularity of public transportation has actually been on the rise since 2005 when Hurricane Katrina wiped out refineries along the Gulf Coast, sending fuel prices soaring, said Virginia Miller, a spokeswoman for the American Public Transportation Association.

"Right away we were hearing from transit systems," Miller said. "Not only was ridership going up, but people were going to websites to get information about public transportation."

The association counted 10.3 billion trips, the highest in 50 years, on buses, light rails and trains last year.

Carlotta Ghafoor of Trenton said that when gas prices started approaching $3 a gallon a few months ago she decided commuting by car was a luxury she could no longer afford.

She said she spent nearly $20 a day on gasoline before she started riding the train. In comparison, a weekly train pass, which also allows her to ride buses at no charge, costs her $60.

"It was easy to make the decision," she said, as she said as she waited for a train that would take her to Metropark where she works as a family service counselor at Beth Israel Cemetery.

Aviles, who commutes to New Brunswick, now drives just seven miles to a free parking lot in Cornwells Heights, Pa., where he boards a regional train to Trenton. Once there, he boards a northbound NJ Transit train.

He's not certain the train is the ultimate answer. He misses talk radio and the freedom of being able to run errands on his way home. He also misses having control over his own schedule. If SEPTA is running even a few minutes late to Trenton, it means he can miss the train to New Brunswick and wind up being late for work.

"I'm thinking about shopping around for a hybrid," Aviles said. "That might help me come out ahead."

http://www.nj.com/printer/printer.ssf?/bas...&thispage=1

[Niels Bohr 72]

Smart, Aviles.

Carpool, and mass transit. Great way to reduce feul consumption.