Community Corner

Get Out the Bike, Gas Prices are Skyrocketing

Gas in Cupertino is inching toward $5 per gallon. Some will turn to their bicycles as a way to cope. At what point do you stop buying gas?

As gas prices surge closer to that dreaded $5 per gallon mark bicycle shops in Cupertino may be the only ones not complaining.

“The last spike of increase of gas, yes we definitely saw an increase in sales,” says Vance Sprock owner of Cupertino Bike Shop.

But the sales spike due to high gas prices hasn’t gifted itself to Sprock or Evolution Bike Shop just yet, though Keola Munos of Evolution says the last three weeks he’s “seen a huge increase” but that’s related to typical summer and back-to-school business, he says.

Find out what's happening in Cupertinowith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Both shops agree that business in new bike sales pick up whenever gas prices increase, but they also get a lot of people bringing in bikes for repair.

“We get people bringing in bikes for repair that are 25 to 30 years old. They drag ‘em out of their garages. They’ll have rusty chains, flat tires,” Sprock says.

Find out what's happening in Cupertinowith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The trend Sprock has noticed has been that as prices get closer to that $5 mark business picks up.

Cars are “entrenched in our society,” Sprock says.

“It takes a lot to get U.S. consumers out of their cars and on a bicycle,” Sprock says.

Per gallon prices in Cupertino on Friday started at $4.69 at U.S. Gas at 22510 Stevens Creek Rd. and go up from there.

What is your breaking point? At what price per gallon will you take to mass transit, bicycling or walking?


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here