HOUSTON -- The skyrocketing price of gas has made some people change the way they get around.

Long-distance drivers are giving up their cars and getting together to carpool in a van.

"It's a simple question and a decision you have to make," Tim Alexander with the Kirby Corporation said. "It's very simple. Do you want to pay $4 a gallon for gas? Or do you want to pay 26.666 cents a gallon for gas?"

Upwards of 7,000 on more than 600 vans make the journey every day, traveling one-way distances of 30 miles or more.

Riders in groups of five to 15 often split the costs, and some get help from their employers.

Baker Hughes, for one, offers employees monthly incentives. Many of them get free rides.

“It’s environmentally friendly,” Jennifer Moore said. “ We’re helping with traffic congestion, fighting against that.  Iin the end, everybody wins.”

The transit agency METRO, which helps arrange the van pools, has seen ridership jump. It’s added as many as 30 vans to its routes to meet the demand.

“Most van pools are very much point-point," METRO spokesman David McMaster said "They meet at a convenient location in the neighborhood where most of the riders live, and they travel to an individual work site.”

As long as gas prices are where they are, everyone is finding ways to cut costs and save money, including many in at the Medical Center.