DRIVING a Mercedes E500 gave Wes Richards a smooth ride to his office in Redwood City, California. Now he hops on a scooter for the 7-kilometer commute from his home in Atherton.

The price of gasoline trumped comfort, Richards said. He traded both his Mercedes sedan and his wife's Mercedes R350 sport-utility vehicle for a Piaggio scooter, a two-seat Smart car and a Toyota Prius.

"I don't miss having those cars," said Richards, 56, managing director of the Silicon Valley office of Korn/Ferry International, an executive-search firm. "Those feelings are reinforced every time I visit the pump and fill up for US$28 where before it was US$90."

The price of gasoline is changing Silicon Valley's commuting culture, Bloomberg News reports. Executives are giving up luxury cars, and companies like Google and Juniper Networks are making it easier for employees to telecommute, use mass transit or take company shuttles.

California gasoline prices are the third-highest in the US, behind Alaska and Hawaii. A gallon of unleaded regular in the state averaged US$4.189 on August 6, up 39 percent from a year ago, according to the AAA motorist organization.

Traffic on Bay Area toll bridges has declined, said John Goodwin, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, which coordinates transportation for the nine-county San Francisco region. Toll booths registered 4 percent fewer vehicles during a four-week period last month than a year earlier, according to the commission.

Ridership on Google's shuttle service has increased 30 percent in the past year, said Sunny Gettinger, a spokeswoman for owner of the world's most popular Web search engine. About 1,600 workers ride the 150 buses each day, from towns as distant as Concord, 88 kilometers away, and Santa Cruz, 56 kilometers.

Juniper's alternative commuting programs have twice as many applicants as three months ago, said Sarah Sorensen, a company spokeswoman. Sunnyvale-based Juniper, the second-largest maker of networking equipment, offers mass-transit subsidies, incentives for biking and a program to match carpoolers.

The company also allows employees to work from home. Globally, 90 percent of Juniper's workforce telecommutes at some time during a year, with 10 percent working from home on any given day, Sorensen said.

Teresa Thompson, a senior business analyst at Juniper, is taking advantage of telecommuting on some days, and countering the cost of gasoline by taking a bus on other days.

"I was spending over US$500 a month on gas, and I have a hybrid," said Thompson, 48. "I should have done it a long time ago."

Workers without a company carpool system are turning to Craigslist's online advertising site. Postings for ride-sharing in the San Francisco area increased 75 percent in June from January, with 4,025 listings in June, Susan MacTavish Best, a spokeswoman for the closely held San Francisco company, wrote in an e-mail.

Tom Reilly, president of ArcSight, a Cupertino-based computer security software company, has changed his driving routine to improve gas mileage. To hit less congestion, he leaves 30 minutes earlier for his 80-kilometer commute from Sausalito to Cupertino. He also monitors his car's consumption readout.

"Seriously, I keep my eyes on that thing all the time, trying to maximize it," said Reilly, 46. "I find that when I leave when there's less traffic, I can get better gas mileage."

Now Reilly's thinking about buying an electric car. "I do think in probably the next 12 months I'd be a good candidate for some of these new electric-hybrid cars," he said.

Limited availability of fuel-efficient cars is a stumbling block for some would-be purchasers.

Craig Norris, chief executive officer of closely held Attensity Corp, the Palo Alto-based maker of text analytics software, was more than willing to get rid of his four-door Nissan Titan truck in favor of a Toyota Prius.

He couldn't find a Prius locally, so he flew to Minnesota to get one.

"I drove it back 32 hours straight," Norris, 60, said. "One of those crazy things people will do to save money."

Vab Goel, 38, a general partner with Palo Alto-based Norwest Venture Partners, has turned to a video-conferencing system in his home, for both business and family calls, to reduce travel.

"In the past few years, I used it a few times a month," Goel said.

"Now I use it a few times a week."