Story originally printed in the La Crosse Tribune or online at www.lacrossetribune.com
Published - Friday, May 16, 2008
Sheboygan man buying no gas for 31 days, maybe longer
SHEBOYGAN, Wis. — Brian LaFave could care less how high gasoline prices go these days.
He’s parked his pickup truck and is buying no gas for a month and possibly longer.
It’s his personal stand against the oil companies, he said.
“The goal is to not use one drop of gas for 31 days.”
That means LaFave, 31, of Sheboygan, is riding his bicycle or walking everywhere he goes.
He won’t even let friends pick him up unless they were already going to be in the neighborhood.
“If they’re not going out of their way, I can take the ride,” he said. “But if they’re going out of their way, then ... I’m still consuming gasoline so it kind of defeats the purpose.”
He started the effort May 11, requiring that he bike to his third-shift job at Aldrich Chemical in Sheboygan Falls, a 9-mile commute from his Sheboygan apartment.
“I did like a practice run ... two days in a row to make sure I could do it,” he said. “I’m not in the greatest shape. The mornings are the worst. It feels like it takes forever. I get like a mile down the road and I want to die.”
It’s a big change for someone who put 300 miles on his truck the week before he stopped driving it.
He’s created a comprehensive chart he fills out each day listing how many miles he bikes, the destination and the gas price that day, among other things.
He plans to compute his savings and donate that amount to a charity that provides food to children in Africa.
LaFave isn’t involved with the Non-Motorized Transportation Pilot Program, which promotes biking and walking in Sheboygan County, but his project fits in perfectly with the program’s goals, according to program manager Mary Ebeling.
“I think it’s great,” said Ebeling, who also rides her bike to work every day. “I think it’s happening sort of organically — he made this decision on his own. I think gas prices are a driver, no pun intended, for a lot of people.”
LaFave said he hopes people follow his example.
“I think just with the gas prices being so high, everybody complains about it but no one ever really does anything about it,” LaFave said. “There’s a lot of apathy right now toward it.
“People continue to drive nonstop and not think about it, but I just wanted to take a stand and say, ’I’m not gonna pay this much money for gas.’”
All stories copyright 2000 - 2006 La Crosse Tribune and other attributed sources.