Posted April 24, 2008 - 11:48am by Michelle Hugli

 When I was house hunting last summer, one of my biggest priorities was to live within walking distance to work. After living in a downtown apartment and realizing how much I was saving on gas, I didn't want to give that up, especially with the increased cost of owning a home.

I found a great house close to downtown. It takes me about 15 minutes to walk to work each morning. The fresh air wakes me up, the walk energizes me and I'm saving a lot of money.

I was motivated by several reasons, but the cost of gas is right at the top. I was lucky enough to fill up my gas tank on Monday before the price went up to 127.9 cents a litre at most gas stations. I plan to stretch that out as much as possible.

I walk to work, I walk to get groceries as much as possible (I don't have a family to feed, so I can manage the few things I get each week easily enough), I can walk to my hair stylist, Pilates studio, running group, corner store, bank and several other places I need to get to on a regular basis. When I drive, I combine my errands.

I'll be breaking out my bike pretty soon and will be mindful of drivers and pedestrians. I'll stick to side streets as much as possible and try out the new bikelanes near Regina's downtown.

It just doesn't make sense to me to keep driving around as much when I can easily walk or cycle. But it's a personal decision. Some people can afford to keep up their driving habits despite the increase in price. Others can't, but cut back elsewhere to make up for it. And it depends on where you live and where you need to go.

But I just can't see myself driving the same way I've been driving for the past few years. It's just too expensive and I don't want to pay for it if I don't have to.