Bay & Environment: Higher gas prices = less driving, more transit? - Bay & Environment is The Sun’s blog devoted to news about Maryland’s environment

I'm back from a long hiatus, covering the Maryland General Assembly for three months, then a stint of editing. Now back to reporting on growth, BRAC and other related issues, so hope to be sharing more frequently here.

To dive back in, colleague Tyeesha Dixon and I had a story today in The Sun about how record-high gasoline prices may be prompting more commuters to try out transit as an alternative to paying more at the pump. The Maryland Transit Administration is responding to growing ridership on its long-distance commuter bus lines by adding routes, with other, longer-range changes to come. The photo above is of commuters returning to Howard County from Washington, taken by The Sun's Elizabeth Malby.

Turns out, USA Today had a story yesterday on signs that motorists nationwide are cutting back on household spending, considering changing to more fuel-efficient vehicles or consolidating errands to reduce driving. A new poll by the paper and Gallup found a phenomenal 76 percent of Americans contacted said they were taking steps to boost gas mileage, such as slowing down or geting tuneups, while an even higher 84 percent said they were consolidating errands to save on fuel.

One thing their story didn't mention was whether Americans were trying transit more, or other alternatives to driving to and from work. Maybe that's because, despite its recent ridership gains, transit still carries only a small share of all commuters. In the Baltimore region, transit advocates say that's because the network of commuter and light rail, subway and buses is disjointed and inadequate.

But some argue that transit is too costly and doesn't really save energy. Cleaning off my desk today after writing my story I came across a recent report produced by the libertarian Cato Institute, which argues that getting more drivers behind the wheels of gas-sipping Toyota Priuses would do more to reduce demand and help the environment than investing more in transit.

Yet another option that gets relatively little attention is "tele-commuting," or working from home or some location closer to home than the office. Again, a small fraction of the workforce works from home (or the Starbuck's), but there seems to be increased interest in it as well, for a variety of reasons. I spoke today with Lisa Medley, an Upper Marlboro resident who works for the Defense Information Systems Agency, the Pentagon's IT department.

With the drive from Upper Marlboro to DISA's Arlington headquarters liable to take anywhere from 35 minutes to two hours, depending on traffic, Medley told me that she's arranged to skip that slog once every two weeks. She does her work from home those days.

"You sit in traffic for two hours, you're burning gas," the 41-year-old Medley told me. "It helps being able to get up and go to your computer."

Indeed, she told me, she'd "tele-work" more often, but her job and the small staff in her particular office requires her physical presence most days. But she can't wait for the day, three years from now, if construction goes according to schedule, when DISA relocates to Fort Meade in Anne Arundel County. She still won't be able to take transit easily from where she lives, but at least she won't have to fight the traffic getting across the Potomac River.

Higher gas prices = less driving, more transit?

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