It’s time for us to get out of our cars.

As the cost of gasoline rises towards five dollars a gallon, the search for cheaper ways to get to school is becoming a No. 1 priority.

Look around DVC, and you’ll see things are already changing.

The bus stops are more crowded, people are beginning to carpool, bicycles are becoming popular again, and the motorcycle spaces in the parking lots are beginning to fill up.

There are a number of cheap(er) ways to get to school.

Motorcycles and scooters, initially somewhat expensive, get two to five times better gas mileage than most cars and pay for themselves relatively quickly.

Bus, BART, bicycles, skateboards, and even that old-fashioned thing called walking (or some combination of the same) are the cheapest ways to commute.

And with proper planning can get you nearly anywhere in the East Bay without driving a car.

Six different bus routes pass through DVC. Buses go to surrounding cities, the AMTRAC station in Martinez, and each of the four closest BART stations.

The 110 route that goes to Concord BART seems to be the fastest and most trafficked.

A 110 bus leaves about every 15 minutes and takes 20 minutes, more or less, from BART to DVC.

Knowing the timetables, which can usually be found on the bus or at the stop and always online, maximizes the time spent in transit versus time spent waiting at a stop.

Depending on traffic and the distance of your route, public transit can be just as fast or faster than driving.

Even the waiting isn’t so bad.

It is an excellent meditation in patience, teaches us to slow down, opens opportunities for interpersonal contact and provides time to read school books students otherwise say they don’t have the time to read.

As more people begin to ride public transit, more buses will be added.

Already the County Connection’s website has a proposed DVC Transit Center in the works, although it says little about the project.

The dipping economy and skyrocketing gas prices are going to change life in a way our generation has never seen.

As Americans, we live in a car-culture. Our freedom to go where we want, when we want depends on it.

But that’s dead.

As poor college students and the future of this country, we need to take the first forward steps, bite the bullet and popularize public transit.