While paying over $4 a gallon for gas has become pretty commonplace here in SoCal, I have yet to do it. Yes, I’m just cheap frugal enough to go out of my way several blocks or more just to pay, oh, $3.97 a gallon.

Somehow, though, that doesn’t seem like enough. The higher gas prices have gone, the more I’ve begun to question my own dependence on a commodity that really does much more harm than good in so many ways.

So yesterday – my sole day off this week, but that’s a rant for a different day – I looked into various options to help cut my fuel dependency. While I’m not giving up my Corolla entirely, the plan is this: find ways to rely on it less in the short term, and in February, when it’s paid off (not to mention 10 years old), if I can’t afford to trade up to a hybrid, I hope to be able to go entirely car-free.

I’ve talked about my bike before. I love my bike, but I don’t have any place to store it where I now live, unless I haul it up to the second floor and park it in my apartment. While this isn’t outside of the realm of possibility, I’m thinking a folding bike might be a better way to go. I test-rode a Dahon Curve yesterday, and fell instantly in love. I’m pretty sure there will be one of these in my future – they’re not cheap, though, so it will take a bit of saving.

I also test-rode a cast-off 20″ Schwinn mountain bike belonging to a teenager who has outgrown it. Yes, long legs and all, I’m still small enough to be able to ride this thing. I’m thinking this bike could live outside, chained to a street sign post, with little threat of being stolen – I mean, it’s small! It’s purple! Not exactly the most desirable thing to a serious bicycle thief. It rides just fine and would get me to Trader Joe’s and back, and I wouldn’t care if it got a bit weathered.

Today, though, will be the biggest part of the experiment: I’m taking the bus to work. This entails getting on an express bus that ends with an almost-one-mile walk from the bus stop to my job, all the while lugging a rather heavy laptop. While I’m all about the walking, I’m not so sure that the return trip, after 9+ hours on the job, will be something I can commit to. But there are incentives: my company pays for a transit pass, plus a $125 CASH BONUS, each month to anybody who gives up their parking pass. Dude! That’s a pair of shoes a month! Or, within 4 months, that’s a Dahon Glide!

Put in those terms, I think I can do this.

UPDATE: Epic fail! I went out to the bus stop 10 minutes before the bus was due, only to see it pulling away early. I waved, but he just shook his head and didn’t stop. The next several buses didn’t go far enough west; then the next one just passed right by me without stopping! Defeated and 30 minutes later, I headed for my car. Eff you, Los Angeles MTA. Next time I’m trying the Big Blue Bus.