Why pay $4.55 for a gallon of regular unleaded gas when a bus ride across Auburn costs 80 cents?

Would you rather pay more than $5 for a gallon of diesel, or create your own fuel for little over $1 per gallon?

As gas prices continue to boil over what many motorists are used to paying or ever thought they’d have to dish out, those paying at the pump are re-assessing their driving habits and strategizing ways to steer clear of the gas station.

“The price of gas, it’s disgusting,” Auburnite Shane Smith said Tuesday afternoon. “Every time you go to pump your gas, it’s like, Aagh!”

Desiring an afternoon of reading at Borders Books, Smith, who drives a 1984 Oldsmobile Toronado, left his car at home and opted to ride a Placer County Transit bus down to Roseville.

“I have this older car, so it would cost me $10 to go down to the mall, but riding the bus is only $2,” he said. “If I have to go down further than anywhere in Auburn, I ride the bus.”

Smith said taking public transit has become more and more appealing as it’s cost him more and more to fill the Toronado’s tank.

“It’s not too bad,” he said of riding the bus. “Sometimes the buses are a little crowded, maybe because of the gas prices, but they get you there, they get you back.”

Smith wasn’t the only person waiting Tuesday to catch a bus at the multi-modal station at Nevada Street and Blocker Drive, where Auburn Transit, Placer County Transit and the Placer Commuter Express buses pick up and drop off. It’s also a stop along the way for Amtrak lines like the Capitol Corridor.

“Once you learn the schedule it’s pretty easy,” Drew Sharp said of riding the bus.

Sharp, who works in Auburn but lives in Roseville, has noticed an increase in bus riders.

“Probably about 10-15 percent,” he said. “It’s because of gas prices and the amount of people on the road.”

Megan Siren, City of Auburn transit manager, said passengers like Sharp are on the right track.

“We are noting a slight increase of usage of the Blocker Street parking lot,” she said. “It is becoming harder and harder to find a spot. It used to be that the back used to be pretty open.”

Increased ridership can be attributed to higher fuel prices, Siren said, but also the Fix I-5 project in Sacramento.

No matter the reason for riding, passengers get a pretty good deal by taking public transit, Siren said. A one-way pass anywhere within city limits—want to take the bus from Depoe Bay Coffee Co. to the Raley’s on Lincoln Way? — is 80 cents for adults. Sweetening the deal, Auburn Transit and Placer County Transit work together and offer a free transfer.

“You could get on Auburn Transit and ride all the way down to Watt Avenue for only 80 cents,” Siren said.

Will Garner, Placer County public works manager, has also seen an increase in people riding Placer County Transit and the Placer Commuter Express buses. Placer County Transit offers service between Auburn and the Sacramento Regional Transit Light Rail station at Watt Avenue and Interstate 80. The Placer Commuter Express offers service between Colfax and downtown Sacramento.

Placer Commuter Express added a third bus to its two-bus system in July 2007 and saw a 47 percent increase in ridership from that point to May 2008, Garner said. To look at it another way, that’s an average of 44 people per bus, up from 30. A fourth Placer Commuter Express bus was added to the schedule in late May.

“It’s a fraction of your fuel costs, and second, it gives you time to do something other than focus on the road — read, daydream,” Garner said of the appeal of riding public transportation.

Diane Wright lives in Auburn, works at Sierra College in Rocklin, and commutes by bus.

“It couldn’t be easier because I can read a book and I don’t have to worry about finding parking,” she said. “It’s very nice.”

Wright said the morning commute from the Nevada Street station to Sierra College takes about 20 minutes.

“It’s a straight shot,” she said. “It’s absolutely on time, even with the construction. They’re on a tight schedule. They don’t wait for you.”

Wright said she started riding the bus in an effort to “go green,” and the deal is even sweeter now, given current gas prices.

The Journal’s Loryll Nicolaisen can be reached at lorylln@goldcountrymedia.com, or comment online at AuburnJournal.com.