This coming week May 12 through 16 is Bike-to-Work Week with Friday the 16 being Bike-to-Work day. The event is sponsored by the League of American Bicyclists and has many events nationwide. The league has also provided a listing of 50 ways to enjoy the bike related festivities during May, national Bike Month. If you have organized an event in your local community as part of the celebration you can get it added to the official page of events.

Biking to work is a great way to save money on gas as it approaches the $4 mark in many areas of the country. Biking to work has many other benefits including being environmentally friendly. The exercise gained from biking to and from work even a short distance is good for your body. The savings over time for being healthy and in good shape throughout your life is worth more than most people can tally up.

If I was more of a morning person or if I lived closer to work I would definitely take advantage of Bike-to-Work week. Unfortunately I live about 20 miles one way from work and I don't have the desire to get up early enough nor do I have the physical prowess to bike 20 miles and then put in a full day's work. If my employer provided a good shower facility I might attempt to bike every now and then, so long as I had a safety net to pick me up when I fell behind.

Do any readers bike to work? How far do you go? Does your employer provide areas to benefit bikers or incentives to bike?

Can a day go by without a news story regarding record high gas prices in the United States? Doubtful. We're a society of complainers, so the news is much more fun when there is something good to complain about. Gas fits the bill. Especially since it also means we get to complain about big naughty oil companies.

Unfortunately, most Americans don't realize that we are blessed with incredibly low gas prices compared to many places around the world. Even as we flirt with $4 a gallon gas, that's still a bargain when you consider what consumers in other countries pay. Gas prices in the U.S. were 45th cheapest on a list of 155 countries, a survey reported by CNNMoney.com shows.

In oil-producing countries, gas is cheap. It's about 12 cents a gallon in Venezuela, 40 cents a gallon in Iran, and 45 cents a gallon in Saudi Arabia. But in and around Europe, the prices are two to two-and-a-half times higher than the U.S. Gas is $8.73 a gallon in Norway, $8.38 a gallon in the United Kingdom, $8.22 in Belgium, and $7.86 in Germany.

So the next time you get ready to complain about the high cost of gas here, maybe thinking about this study will make you feel a little better. We've still got relatively cheap gas, even though the U.S. is one of the world's biggest consumers of gas.

Tracy L. Coenen, CPA, MBA, CFE performs fraud examinations and financial investigations for her company Sequence Inc. Forensic Accounting, and is the author of Essentials of Corporate Fraud.

If you haven't been thinking of buying a Chrysler lately, maybe you should. The Detroit News is reporting that Chrysler LLC is offering customers guaranteed gas prices for the next three years. Our sister blog, the ever-vigilant, AutoBlog, was one of the first to report the news yesterday.

The sales plan is called "Let's Refuel America," and almost every Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep vehicle being sold allows you to also sign up for a gas card that will reduce the price you pay to $2.99 -- for the next three years.

Clearly, it's an interesting deal and possibly a fantastic one, depending how high gas prices go. Currently, The Detroit News reports, someone would save approximately $1,000 per year if you have a 12-mile-per-gallon vehicle. People who are not interested can get a different incentive like a rebate or a cash bonus.

But I don't know what's more depressing -- that Chrysler has to bribe people with cheaper gas to buy its cars... or that $2.99 is now considered a deal at the pump.

Geoff Williams is a business journalist and the author of C.C. Pyle's Amazing Foot Race: The True Story of the 1928 Coast-to-Coast Run Across America (Rodale).

For under $2,000, you can buy a brand-new vehicle that will get 100 mpg, and can be parked almost anywhere. With gas at $4 and heading up, perhaps it's time we took another look at the world's answer to cheap transportation, the scooter.

I'm not suggesting the old-style two-stroke, high polluting pieces of crap, but modern, high-quality machines from manufacturers such as Honda.

For example, check out the--

Honda Metropolitan, $1,899. Honda matches classic scooter styling with a 49 cc. four stroke liquid-cooled engine for a ride capable of carrying you 100 miles or so on a gallon of petrol. Talk about cutting down the cost of transportation.

Yamaha Vino, $1,949. This scoot features a comparable engine to the Honda, and gets around 110 mpg. It too has classic European styling and Yamaha quality.

Vespa still has plenty of dogs in this hunt, including the Piaggio Fly50, a 50 cc. four-stroke selling for $1,849. It also captures the scooter cache with handsome styling.

Of course, scooters have limitations, primarily weather. Riding them in traffic takes some practice and skill, and taking a motorcycle training course from the Motorcycle Safety Institute would greatly improve your skills. But with gas going nowhere but up, a little two-wheeled fun might help keep your budget from running out of gas.

I don't think there's anyone around who isn't grumbling about high gas prices. (Unless you're committed to walking and biking, I suppose.) Gas station owners are already hurting because of the high gas prices. They make very little money on gas to begin with, and the higher the prices rise, the more their margins are hurt.

Now we can add another gripe to the list for some gas station owners. Older pumps may not be set up to charge more than $3.99 per gallon. That's the problem one gas station owner in the Seattle area is grappling with. Lou Engels bought new gas pumps in 1995, never thinking that he'd have to replace them because they only go up to $3.99 per gallon.

Those twelve-year-old pumps aren't exactly ancient, and there's apparently nothing wrong with how they operate. So replacing them isn't much of an option, especially when it would cost him tens of thousands of dollars. Even just upgrading the pumps would cost him a minimum of $8,500, a cost that Engel can't justify right now.

So what's a gas station owner to do? Engel has posted large signs indicating the correct price, and each sale has to be tallied by hand before the customer can pay. He says he's got local customers who understand, and this hasn't hurt his business. But it looks like Engel may be forced to do the expensive upgrades, because Washington state laws require the pumps to calculate the correct total price. Just another fuel-related woe to add to the list!

Tracy L. Coenen, CPA, MBA, CFE performs fraud examinations and financial investigations for her company Sequence Inc. Forensic Accounting, and is the author of Essentials of Corporate Fraud.

You don't have to look very far to find instances of blatantly misleading but still legal advertising in the automotive industry. Even though most dealers clearly disclose how the deal works, the result is that car ads are obfuscatory and require very careful reading.

My favorite (or least favorite) example of deliberately confusing car advertising is the ol' "price reflects down payment and/or trade-in."

Here's an example of how this works in action. Sutherlin Nissan of Fort Myers advertises a 2003 Corvette priced at $24,988, with the caveat (in much smaller print) that "all prices are after your $2000 down payment."

Think about that. This dealer (and many, many other dealers that use the same tactics) are telling you that the car costs $24,988, not including another $2,000. Wouldn't it be more forthright to just say that the car costs $26,988? To my knowledge, the car industry is the only business that uses this tactic. Can you imagine if the flyer for the grocery store advertised "99 CENT VITAMIN WATER!" with an asterisk indicating that "price advertised does not include the other 50 cents that you have to pay for the drink"?

I know that these companies aren't doing anything illegal in their advertising. But to me, it's misleading enough that I wouldn't even consider buying from that dealer.

This post is part of a series about real-life signs we're in a recession.

It has been fun for the past year, since my son was born, driving around in a 1999 Ford Taurus with three kids crammed into the back seat. But the plan has long been to buy a minivan.

The only one my eight-year-old daughter, who loves our Taurus almost as much as my husband, would consent to is the new Dodge Grand Caravan, for 2008. That's because it is the one with the seats that spin and face backwards and the little pop-in table for in-van picnicking.

Am I a sucker for swivel and go seating? Yes! I thought we had an easy decision and I even joined Costco (more on that decision) to take advantage of their no-haggle car buying program. I had my special incentives and zero percent financing deals all lined up when I went to the nearest participating dealer, ready to buy.

Only problem: I thought I could buy a car for about $22,000. But when I got done talking to the salesman, he had me convinced I needed a model that cost $36,000. With my cheap financing deal, that was still $1,000 a month.

Back in 2004 a lawyer in Arkansas found out that his odometer wasn't calculating mileage correctly on his Honda minivan. His tests found out that the odometer was off by 5%, so for every 100 miles his minivan would rack up 105 miles. This may seem like small change, but as Bankrate.com points out, even a 5% error can end your new car's warranty up 1000 miles early! The problem only gets worse when you have a car with a 100,000 mile warranty.

The last time you want to be without a warranty is when your vehicle rolls over 100,000, especially not when you really have 5,000 miles left on your warranty. At this point in your car's life it is much more likely to need expensive repairs which would have normally been covered under warranty. You'll appreciate having checked out the calibration of your odometer when your engine or transmission goes out at 100,007 miles.

Finding out if your odometer is quietly eating away at your warranty is really easy, just grab a friend and head to your closest federal highway. All you need to do is measure your odometer against the mile markers, use some of your mathematical skills and viola, you know how far off your odometer is. Bankrate has several steps to take in the event your odometer is skimming cash from your wallet. Thankfully most odometers are computer controlled, and can be fixed at your local dealer.

When we bought our most recent car we made sure that the car didn't have any odometer fraud, but we didn't even think to check that it was recording correctly. It looks like we have a project for our next road trip, especially since we purchased a power-train warranty with the vehicle.

Finding a good mechanic can be a particularly daunting task. I have been trying to find a new mechanic near me for quite a little while now. This task has been a little more difficult for me as my dad used to be a full time mechanic, handling all of my repairs. Now that he has switched jobs he doesn't have access to many of the tools needed to do advanced work on our 2005 Equinox. Thisrecent purchase spurred the search for a trustworthy and loyal mechanic.

The way I see it, you have 4 options for finding a reliable mechanic in your hometown. If you disagree or want to add to the list use the comments box below.

1. Use reviews on Cartalk.com - Click and Clack run a weekly call in show about car problems, often spiced with laughs and a DIY approach. Their website also offers a "Find a great mechanic" feature which pointed me to several local repair shops worth checking out.
2. Ask your co-workers and neighbors - Have lunch with a co-worker you trust and get along with, find out where they take their car. If they seem happy with the service give the place a try. Same goes for your neighbor, though if they recommend "Cousin Jim's auto repair and taxidermy," you may want to make sure the shop is properly equipped and staffed with trained employees.

This post is part of a series about real-life signs we're in a recession.

My brother-in-law recently wound up paying a lot more than he expected when he left my nephew's Toyota Tacoma in the Oakland Airport's long-term parking for the weekend. When he returned from his trip and turned the key in the ignition, the truck let out a roar that would deafen even the most hardened Harley driver, and David knew he'd joined the growing number of victims of catalytic converter theft nationwide.

Thieves have taken to removing catalytic converters, which help control emissions, from the underside of parked vehicles. The converters contain trace amounts of platinum and rhodium--which go for about $2,054 and $9,278 per ounce, respectively--and can be sold on the black market for a couple hundred dollars each. Victims, however, pay much more than that for replacement parts: My brother-in-law shelled out almost $2,000 for a new converter for my nephew's truck.

While David has pledged to use only short-term parking at the airport from now on, that precaution might not be enough. For one thing, trucks like the Tacoma and SUVs like the Toyota 4Runner--the vehicle David owns and drives to the train station each morning--are among the hardest hit since they sit high off the ground, making their catalytic converters easy to remove from underneath. For another, those who are of the mind to slide under a vehicle with hacksaw in hand don't seem to be picky about where they strike: Reports of catalytic converter thefts have come from day care centers in Memphis, carpool lots in Michigan and car dealerships in Ohio.

Since this is a crime of opportunity--and since thieves are grabbing every opportunity they can--prevention is tricky. Seems the best way to avoid becoming a victim is to drive low to the ground. Or maybe just ride a Harley.

I moan a lot about how poorly the airlines treat their customers. And with the addition of all sorts of fees for everything from a drink of water to bringing two suitcases on your trip, the race is on to see which airline can treat its customers worst.

UK company Thompson Solutions has created a better airline seat they call the "The Cozy Suite." I already know what you're thinking. First class doesn't need another perk on their trip. But these seats – believe it or not – are made specifically for coach travelers.

The key to comfort for these seats is their staggered design. Three people are no longer crammed directly next to each other. Each passenger is slightly in front of or behind the person next to them, giving the illusion of more room. The seats even add seating capacity to some flights (depending on the configuration the airline chooses) which should make them more appealing to airline management. If airlines choose the configuration that does not add capacity, the seats then end up being two-inches wider than a normal coach seat. Yahoo!!!

A lot of design time went into these seats, with the most important part of the process... watching passengers to see how they sat and slept while on flights. Wired reports that Delta is the first airline that will be using the seats. They're scheduled to install them in 100 airplanes used for transatlantic flights, beginning in 2010. I'm all in favor of anything that will offer some level of comfort on flights!

Tracy L. Coenen, CPA, MBA, CFE performs fraud examinations and financial investigations for her company Sequence Inc. Forensic Accounting, and is the author of Essentials of Corporate Fraud.

The American Electronics Association released a report last week as part of Earth Day celebrations making a strong case for telecommuting. The study found that if all employees in the U.S. whose positions allowed it worked from home two days a week the demand for gasoline would drop by 1.35 billion gallons!

The report also addresses many of the concerns managers have with their underlings telecommuting, dispelling several, and providing additional reasons for companies to support working from home. The strongest reasons other than cost savings are that working from home improves both employee retention and productivity.

For many employees, the technology to enable telecommuting is already available. Possibly one of the biggest hurdles is the need for a secure connection to the work network, known as a VPN, but in recent years these have become more common. Off the shelf solutions such as LogMeIn and GoToMyPC provide secure connections and are easy to set up, providing a link to a computer already on the network. This leaves just the need for a laptop, miscellaneous office equipment and a high speed Internet connection to complete the telecommuter's home office.

I would love to be able to work from home for a few days a week at my day job as a database administrator. I currently commute about 40 miles round trip, and while I carpool, I am still spending a nice chunk of my monthly take home on gas. In my case, the technology is all in place, and as for home office equipment, I'd be willing to use my own technology to work from home a few days a week. Unfortunately working from home is still looked at warily by my employer, though given the green initiatives in place at work; this report may be just what I need. I guess I'll be doing a mass emailing in the morning! I think I'll need support from the president to get this one green lit.

What do you all think? Do your employers allow you to telecommute? Why or why not? Let's hear from you.

If you purchase a car like me, a large part of your decision making is based around how much you can afford to spend. The last time we bought a car we didn't take into account the total cost of ownership. The cost of ownership is represented by fuel costs, maintenance, depreciation, interest paid and other factors which impact the total cash you put out for your new vehicle over the first five years of ownership. The results are often surprising and reinforce the need to bunker down and research vehicle purchases.

Consumer Reports has compiled cost of ownership for over 300 cars in the April issue, which is also available online to subscribers. AOL autos took an in depth look at the report and pulled some interesting information about vehicle costs. Sometimes spending a few grand more on the initial purchase will add up to savings in the long run. If you plan to change vehicles every 3 years, this tool won't be much help for you, since it is based on five years of ownership, the length of most car loans.

It's not out of the realm of possibility that gas could rise to $7 a gallon within the next several years. I'm skeptical about that, but then, I didn't expect us to be at almost $4 a gallon right now, either.

Obviously, gas at that price will put many Americans in a financial pinch, unless they start planning now. Think three or four years down the road, and ask yourself how prepared you want to be for the possibility that gas will become more of a luxury.

What kind of car should you own? If you're in the market for a car now, consider what kind of fuel efficiency you might require in the future. It might make sense to purchase a hybrid or another vehicle that is more fuel efficient than the car you really want today.

How can you cut down on gas used for your commute to work? If you're shopping for a new house or apartment, consider whether it might make sense to find a place that's closer to work. If you think a job change is coming soon, keep the location of potential new jobs in mind when you're house hunting too.

I've written before about the hidden costs of driving; maintenance, depreciation and insurance. The IRS allowable deduction is a good catch-all number for estimating the cost of travel. It currently stands at $.505 per mile.

This makes it easy to estimate the cost of a round trip; the number of miles one way is about the number of dollars it will cost you. I found this very sobering when I began to consider the places I normally travel.

Each week, I meet with a writing group in a local library. The library is 4.54 miles away, so each meeting costs me $4.59, or around $250 per year. I hope that my writing improves each year by at least this much!

My good friends Brian and Carolyn live on the other side of Columbus, 21.42 miles away. Our Friday night get-togethers costs whichever drives to the other's house $21.63, before we even depart for a restaurant.

My in-laws live in Dayton, 74.68 miles away. A quick trip back and forth costs my wife and I $75.