As the price of gas approaches $3 per gallon some locals are beginning to wonder at what price they will seriously consider biking it -- or hiking it -- to work or to run errands.

"It's bull," said Tom Dhillon, 56, of Coos Bay as he ducked into a maroon sedan on Sherman Avenue Wednesday around lunchtime. "It's just a rip-off."

If the already escalating price of gas didn't trigger people to contemplate alternatives to their lifestyle -- the $3 mark appears to be doing just that.

Christina Coughlin, 28, of North Bend was walking north with her daughter on Sherman Avenue's sidewalk. She said she filled up her van's gas tank the night before with about $40 in gas.

"It's one of the reasons we are not running errands right now in our car," she said. "So we do a lot more walking."

While she is no petroleum expert, she predicted gas prices wouldn't surpass the $3.25 mark. But if they do, gas producers can expect their ever-increasing prices will correspond directly to an ever-decreasing desire for her to put the pedal to the metal to get around town.

"If my son wasn't schooled in Hauser, we'd walk him to school," she said.

But, for now, the spike in gas prices isn't going to keep her family from traveling over the Labor Day weekend.

"We're going to Loon Lake," she said.

The rise in prices did not appear to curtail the traffic on U.S. Highway 101. The din did not let up at all as motor vehicles of every make and model lumbered along the route.

The frustration in high gas prices was on the tip of nearly everyone's tongue.

Fred Corbett, 63, of Coos Bay, filled up his gas tank late Wednesday morning, figuring he had done so just before prices would be jacked up -- as is tradition -- for Labor Day travelers.

It's Corbett's occupation as a traveling musician that keeps him going back to the pump again and again and again.

"It's not an option for me," Corbett said about when he would consider hiking or biking. "I'm a road musician."

As a frequent traveler, he has become a connoisseur of sorts on Oregon's gas prices. One lesson he learned early on: Don't fill'er up on the South Coast.

"Practically without exception, the price of gas on the South Coast is the most expensive in Oregon," Corbett said.

When he travels a great distance -- and knows he will be going through Eugene or Roseburg -- he makes sure he has enough in his tank to get him there.

He said he estimates he's spent an extra $500 to $600 on gas this year.

"It's not been a nice year that way," Corbett said.

Diedra Clark, 25, of Seattle -- whose Volvo was packed down with two bikes and two surfboards -- said the rising price of gas forced her and her traveling companion to drastically modify their vacation plans. Had they known that gas prices were going to skyrocket the way they have over the last few days, she said, they likely would have canceled their trip altogether.

Instead, they decided to alter the way they spent their vacation money.

"We're camping all the way," Clark said, instead of booking themselves into hotel rooms.

In Seattle, now moreso than ever before, she said, she relies on her bicycle to move her around the city. She said it's for both economical -- and ecological -- reasons. She would likely stop driving completely ("other than for absolute necessities") if prices reach between $4 and $5 per gallon.

"It's gotta stop somewhere," Clark said.

But, for Chris Strub, 23, a commercial fisherman from Dillingham, Alaska, the price is just right.

"I don't have a problem paying that," Strub said. He's on a driving tour from Dillingham, about 365 miles southwest of Anchorage, to Los Angeles.

The price of gas in downtown Dillingham?

It's $4.10 per gallon, he said.