I mostly use the "T" here in Boston. It's about a block from work, and two blocks from home. A monthly pass (called a "Charlie Card") costs $59 covers subway and local busses, but not commuter rail, ferries, etc. I probably use it 60-70 times per month, so averages less than one dollar/ride. So I don't drive much here in the city.
I have an old on its last legs AMC Eagle wagon that I use to schlep my upright bass (it won't fit in the SAAB) on occasion. Plus, it has all wheel drive, and it gets about 15mpg, but I hardly drive it at all, so not much impact there.
The price of gas does impact my trips back to Kansas several times each year, since I hate to fly. My boyfriend, Sig, laughs at me for the lengths to which I'll go to avoid flying.
But even if I do fly, Wichita -NOT a cheap airport-
is a four hour drive from home, plus the cost of a rental car. Much cheaper airfares to Denver, Kansas City, or OKC but they're more like a five or six hour drive.
By now I have the various different routes driving from Boston down to a science, 26-28 hours actual behind the wheel time if I can avoid rush hours in Cleveland and Chicago, or avoid them altogether. But, I digress...
My SAAB gets about 30-32mpg driving as fast as I think I can get away with.
So about 125 gallons round trip plus a couple of hotel nights and I have o couple of strategically placed friends/cousins for an occasional free stay. So about $800 per trip, give or take. Higher gas price is about $100 of that. Flying would save me the cost of a couple nights on the road, which would be mostly offset by the cost of a rental car.
And when I drive instead of fly, I can bring back a cooler full of dry ice and twenty or thirty pounds of good grass fed beef from my dad.
Lindy