There are not many people who can have failed to notice the dramatic rise in fuel costs over recent years. The last two years in particular have been incredibly bad, and recent turmoil during the spring of 2011 in the middle east has made prices rise once again.

Basically, the western world needs to wean itself away from its dependency on oil. This is not only because supplies are running low, but also, because it is damaging to the environment. In the past, these words may have been taken with a pinch of salt by many people, but now that their wallets are being adversely affected, they are suddenly seeing the light.

It also helps that there are now many innovative solutions which can help those people that want to use an alternative to a car. These include electric bikes and electric cars amongst others. There are also many duel fuel cars on the market as well.

Some of these new innovations suffer from the problem of not 'being cool', which is preventing them from taking off in the huge fashion that they deserve to. However, when people add up the purely monetary benefits of using these vehicles, it soon makes sense.

If you are feeling your belt tighten due to rising prices, then have a look at your current method of transport, and see if you can change it for the better. It will not only be helping you, but also the environment as well.