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John Daley ReportingDavid Canzonetti, Scooter Shopper: "I'm looking at it because of the gas mileage."
Three dollars a gallon, what started out as a tall tale could soon become a cold hard fact, and the shock is leading drivers to make big changes.
The average price of a fill up is now over thirty dollars. So what is the average Utahn to do? For some, it's getting out of a gas guzzler. Others are leaving four wheels behind altogether for two.
Big changes are underway in the world of "getting around." Many commuters are thinking about something simpler and less hungry for gas. Salt Lake architect David Canzonetti is thinking about moving to a scooter from his gas guzzling SUV.
David Canzonetti , Scooter Shopper: "In town, it's around 12. On the highway, it gets 16, but to fill it, 42 gallons around 3 bucks a gallon, that's expensive."
Increasingly, consumers are trading in four wheels for two. Nearly 20 million bicycles were sold in the U.S. last year, one of the industry's best years ever. Sales are up 12% from 1999.
Scooters or small-bore cycles account for smaller numbers, 130,000, last year, but sales are up an impressive 500% since 1999.
A key factor is that the average retail price of gasoline is $2.93 a gallon, or 36 percent higher than a year ago.
At Gutherie Bicycle in downtown Salt Lake they're seeing more customers.
Pete Shaffer, Guthrie Bicycle: "There's definitely a lot more bikers on the road. I think the gas prices are definitely driving the market away from big trucks and cars."
People are buying new bikes or repairing old ones.
Pete Shaffer, Guthrie Bicycle: "There's definitely a lot of people coming in to get their bikes fixed, to do more riding, to try and commute a couple days of week. And then also buying entry level road bikes and mountain bikes and just kind of go 'A' to 'B'."
At Vespa Utah, sales of scooters are up too.
Layne Latham, General Manager, Vespa Utah: "So far this year we've doubled our numbers. We sell more bikes now than we ever have, since we opened the store. This year."
They generally cost a few thousand dollars, depending on the brand. Sales have been brisk as more and more people migrate towards a higher mpg.
Layne Latham, General Manager, Vespa Utah: "Everyone's been buying because of the gas prices."
David Canzonetti , Scooter Shopper: "It certainly gets more than my Suburban."
The scooters get 65 to 70 miles per gallon on a 2.5 gallon tank of gas, with a range of 150 miles.
In other places around the world, like Europe, the numbers of people on scooters is much greater. Of course, their gas prices have been double that in the U.S. for a long time.
