As the age of cheap gasoline disappears in the rearview mirror, we're seeing half-baked schemes to rattle Big Oil.

Maybe you've seen the same e-mail I received yesterday from an old friend. It suggests boycotting a particular oil company. It claims if everyone e-mails the suggestion to just 10 more people, 300 million people will be on the boycott bandwagon within eight days.

"THIS CAN REALLY WORK,'' it says.

Hooey.

The dollar has been sinking like a stone. Worldwide demand for oil has risen. The only way you're going to cut your gasoline bill is to buy less of it. The only way to do that is to either have your foot meet the pedal less often or have some other working stiffs chip in for gas.

If you're among the more than 800,000 people in the metro area who drive alone every workday, that ain't happening.

If you're among the nearly 1,000 commuters in car pools and van pools organized by the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission's CommuteInfo (www.commuteinfo.org), you're in on one of Pittsburgh's best-kept secrets.

If you're one of the roughly 1,000 potential riders looking for a match-up with a driver, you're wondering why nobody is calling 1-888-819-6110 to volunteer and make commuting costs go away.

I've written lately about walking the city, and the 2000 U.S. Census found only three metropolitan areas with a higher percentage of people walking to work than Pittsburgh. (That would be New York, Boston and Philadelphia.) But there are thousands who couldn't do that tomorrow if they started walking yesterday. For those commuting 30 miles or more, sharing a ride could make the soaring cost of gasoline a yawn inducer.

Sandra Shearer has been riding one of the vans since her third day on the job at the University of Pittsburgh more than 16 years ago. She lives in little Oklahoma Borough in northern Westmoreland County, so without this she'd be putting 64 miles a day on her vehicle plus having the hassle of finding and funding a parking place in Oakland.

Instead she pays $72 a month as one of the 13 riders in a van that comes down Route 28. She drives her gas-guzzling Ford Explorer just a couple of miles to a shopping center outside Vandergrift, gets in the van about 6:15 a.m., and is in Oakland by 7:15 a.m.

In a pinch, she'll drive the van, but she doesn't want the responsibility of doing that full time, even though the volunteer drivers ride free. "The winter would kind of freak me out.''

Her driver has been at it about eight years, and Mrs. Shearer generally rides shotgun to provide an extra set of eyes while everyone else mostly sleeps. The ride home leaves Oakland at 4:30 p.m. and lasts until about 5:50.

"After five minutes, it's silent the whole way home.''

Roderick Frisk, an administrative law judge for the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board, is visually impaired, and thus catching a ride to work is a must. He lives in Fombell, west of Zelienople, works in Parkway Center Mall and has been carpooling to Pittsburgh for 32 years.

Parking in the Green Tree area is free and plentiful, so drivers haven't been as compelled to look at ride sharing. With gasoline predicted to rise to $3.50 a gallon this summer, that may change. Anyway, he found his current ride through CommuteInfo.

Each car pool decides how to share costs, and Lisa Kay Schweyer, the program developer, suggests figuring that out before sharing a ride. Mr. Frisk rides with two women and pays the driver $8 a day, which seems a good deal all around.

CommuteInfo has 420 people in 36 van pools, and 543 in 250 car pools. It even has been hooking up commuting cyclists with partners to cycle beside.

If you're angry with Big Oil, feed it less money.