Cheaper gas ...

but less driving

Associated Press writer, Joan Lowy, reports today that despite a significant dip in gas prices, cagers continue to drive less.

Federal Highway Administration data released Friday show the number of miles driven dropped 3.5 percent in October compared with the same month a year ago. Between November 2007, when the driving decline began, and October, Americans drove 100 billion fewer miles. That's the largest continuous decline in driving the nation has experienced. Gas prices averaged $3.15 a gallon in October, down from a high of $4.09 in July, according to the Energy Information Administration.

And with this decline,

... subways, buses, commuter rail and light-rail systems have reported record increases in ridership. Amtrak, the nation's intercity passenger railroad, said it carried the highest number of passengers and brought in the most revenue in fiscal 2008 in its 37-year history.

With our crazy early winter, low of 19 degrees tonight and high of 40 tomorrow, the other transportation alternative will have to adapt. So during the next, inevitable lows this winter I would like to suggest a little innovation first floated in 1948 right here in The Windy City. Joe Steinlauf, the owner of Joe's Auto and Cycle Supply, was an inveterate tinkerer. His ice bike here is just one of many contraptions he rolled off the assembly floor through the years.