TYLER, Texas — Experts suggest to prepare for gas prices to get worse before they get better.
Fuel costs have driven East Texans to take the bus, ride their bikes or even walk, including Tyler resident Debbie Martini.
“My car got stolen," Martini said. "It's not easy. I mean, I'm partially disabled. So you know, I'm really not supposed to walk a whole lot. But if you gotta get things done.”
Martini walks and uses the bus. Even if she had her car, she’d still lean toward Tyler Transit until gas prices came down.
Payton Weidman, city of Tyler public information officer, said other residents are doing the same thing.
“We've been seeing about a 5% increase each month," Weidman said. "So, not too, too big of an increase, but we are seeing more people utilizing Tyler Transit with these rising gas prices.”
For those who worry about their ride cutting into their time to get to work, there’s free Wi-Fi on all of the buses.
"You can start working on the bus. You can get on the Wi-Fi, begin working, send your emails, do whatever you may need to do on your laptop or just on your phone," Weidman said.
As for biking, recent bike lane expansion is coming in handy. Metropolitan Planning Organization Manager Michael Howell said more people are trading their four wheels for two.
"A lot of those really short trips that people could make, ‘alright, I don't need to take my car for this. I could go ahead and just bike just a couple of blocks down the way.’ Yeah, it is really becoming a much more viable option," Howell said.
Riding the bus or catching a bike is significantly cheaper than filling up your tank. Walking and biking are free and riding the bus will cost you at most $2 a day.
"Tyler Transit, no matter what gas prices are, is always going to stay the same price, we tried to make sure that it's worked into our budget for any inflation that could be seen," Weidman said.
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