No one knows where fuel prices are headed, but the cost to fill 'er up is driving some Utahns to distraction even as other residents say they haven't reached the parking point - and are even applauding higher pump prices.

"Encouraging" is the way Charles Konopa puts it.

"Higher gas prices will spread the use of light rail for mass transit," said Konopa, 29, a civil engineer in Salt Lake City. "It will help people get into the conservation idea."

Rob Jones, who in jest claims to be from "Smog Lake, Utah," echoes Konopa in urging Utahns to "hope and pray and praise the lord that gas prices continue going up.

"What else do we and the planet's other inhabitants have going to encourage population control and to reduce egregious resource use and abuse?" Jones, a 55-year-old Salt Lake City resident, said in an e-mail.

Konopa believes he is like most Americans: When gas hits $4 a gallon he will park his car and make the five-mile trip to his office by bicycle or in a carpool. At $5 per gallon, he'd even use a bike or in-line skates for shopping or recreational outings.

"If gas prices were higher, people would change their habits," he said.

We may just get to see whether Konopa is right.

As the Labor Day weekend approaches, the price for regular unleaded gasoline averaged $2.56 a gallon in the Salt Lake City-Ogden area on Thursday, according to AAA. That's up about 72 cents from a year ago. And diesel fuel, which once seemed a bargain compared with regular gas, was nudging $3 at many locations.

Many economists say prices have yet to peak, as supply problems and demand for fuel from countries such as China and India will continue to pressure gasoline prices.

Hurricane Katrina sent oil prices above $70 a barrel at mid-week and further shrunk already tight supplies of heating oil and gasoline as it shut down at least eight refineries in its path. Natural gas prices are edging up, too. The federal government moved to dip into the nation's emergency oil reserves.

For consumers, the big unknown is how combustible the combination of fuel and heating prices will prove to be this fall. Already, higher fuel prices are driving up costs of most other commodities.

And that has left many Utahns, particularly those on fixed incomes, in a bind.

They are making up the extra $10-plus a week it costs to fill the gas tank by cutting corners elsewhere - dropping cable TV and newspaper subscriptions, becoming frugal grocery shoppers and simply staying home. Others are parking their cars and hopping on bicycles, buses and Trax. And some are calling for boycotts, pledging to ease their frustration at the ballot box.

Marilyn Olson, 68, said she "can't afford my friends. I have a friend in Las Vegas who says 'Come down and stay.' Ha! I can't afford the gas."

Nor can she afford to visit friends in southern Utah. Or her husband's gravesite in central Utah.

"There has got to be some sort of a break," said the Salt Lake City woman, who lives on Social Security. "By the time I pay utilities and a few groceries, I don't have a whole lot left. I am very disturbed."

Bud Jones of Midvale plans to drop newspaper and cable TV subscriptions. Golf vacations are out. So are holiday trips to visit grandkids in Arizona and Colorado. And he and wife Audrey will, for the first time, travel by Trax to University of Utah football games this season.

"Everything is going to go sky high," said Jones, 70. "It is going to hurt a lot of people, and I'm one of them."

Count Tim Shores in that group, too. Shores, 45, has worked hard to be self-sufficient despite several disabilities. But his $8.71 an hour wage leaves little wiggle room - none now given the increase in gas, which he says has nearly doubled the cost of filling his Ford Escort.

"I can't go anywhere," Shores said. "I am not making it month-to-month. Right now I am having problems covering my rent."

Many Utahns already are being nudged into new habits. Deanna Dickinson of West Jordan can list a half-dozen ways her lifestyle has changed as gas prices rock her fragile financial situation.

She mows her lawn less frequently, no longer goes out to eat, watches grocery prices, relies on television for entertainment and limits visits with her grown children to those who live close by.

"I am even thinking of using vacation time or sick leave so I don't have to put gas in my car to travel around to the buildings I am supposed to maintain," said Dickinson, a widow who makes just under $10 an hour, plus 30 cents a mile, as a building custodian.

Dickinson has devised a way to limit dollars spent on gasoline: She puts only $15 worth of gas in her 2002 Chevrolet Malibu each week, about a quarter of a tank.

"If I had more gas in the car I would be tempted to go more places," she said. "I can't afford recreational gas."

Utahns who are weathering the gas price storm easiest are those who switched to vehicles that use alternative fuels - biodiesel, natural gas and propane. Robert Mayhew is one.

A couple of years ago, Mayhew bought a truck converted to run on propane. He currently is paying about $1.35 a gallon for propane at Flying J.

"What I can't believe is that with current fuel prices, more people aren't converting their vehicles to alternative fuel," said Mayhew, who lives in West Jordan.

Those who drive natural gas vehicles are currently paying about $1.14 a gallon.

Natural gas, though, remains a hard sell.

"We are not seeing as much demand as I would expect to see," said Kelli Kammerer, a marketing consultant for the natural gas Honda Civic.

Utah has the second-largest natural gas infrastructure in the nation, Kammerer said, which means fueling up is easy.

It is domestically produced and burns cleaner, too. And while a natural gas vehicle costs more than a gasoline one, state and federal tax incentives whittle that down to a $500 to $700 difference, she said.

For some Utahns, there is a flip side to the downside: renewed interest in oil and gas exploration in parts of the state that may yield jobs for working-class people.

Corrie Lynne Player appreciates her small, gas-efficient car more than ever.

But, after struggling for decades to keep afloat the family's methane and oil location business - Gary Player Ventures, based in Cedar City - there has been a sudden influx of interest from investors.

"Today's climate means that we may finally reap the benefits of those 20 years," Player said in an e-mail.

Trina McCleary, West Jordan

The McCleary family scrapped the vacation to Southern California, opting instead for a short jaunt to Starvation Reservoir this weekend - a destination that won't cost a fortune in gasoline.

It is just one of several adjustments the West Jordan family has made to cope with rising fuel costs.

Always a careful shopper, Trina McCleary now keeps an even closer watch on grocery store specials. She plots and plans her errands so "I'm not driving back and forth across the valley more than necessary." She cut "way back" on school clothes, which the children helped pay for this year. And money set aside in savings is "less than it was."

McCleary works part time as a school cafeteria cashier. Husband Robert is the family's main provider.

"We are a hard-working middle class family like so many are. We'd be in trouble if we had debt. We just barely make it."

For now, McCleary is trying to stay optimistic that, as in the '80s, the hike in gas prices is temporary. "I just cannot see them going a lot higher. I don't know how people can survive."

These are supposed to be their golden years, a time of leisure and relaxation.

Instead, Darr and Laura Greenwood of Sandy have struggled to make ends meet the past couple years on a $24,000 a year pension. Soaring gas prices proved to be their budget buster, sending Darr Greenwood back into the labor force.

"This is the biggest rip-off in the world," he said. "I'm going to remember all these people come voting time."

Greenwood worked as a slaughterhouse butcher for more than 35 years and then put in about 10 years at an electric apparatus repair shop. He retired 15 years ago, and the couple got along fine for a while - until the cost of living outpaced their income.

"The gas is not helping at all," said Greenwood, 78.

Greenwood took a temporary job earlier this summer at an automobile auction house; he gets paid $6 an hour to shuttle vehicles around. Even that meager amount helps to fill their financial gap, which they've also tried to reduce by making lifestyle changes.

They've put the fifth-wheel trailer up for sale, cut out vacations and wintertime trips to sunnier climes. "The last time we went snowbirding the price of diesel was $1.57," Greenwood said. "That sounds like an antique deal there, doesn't it?"

He is keeping a wary eye on food prices, too. "I'm not knocking the dairy farmers, but my goodness, all of a sudden the cows have got golden bags," Greenwood said.

"Whether it's trucked in or manufactured here, they are going to pass costs on to the consumer."

Brooke Adams

Getting the most for your gasoline buck

Here are things you can do to get the most mileage from your tank of gas:

* Consolidate trips.

* Avoid quick starts and stops, and maintain a steady speed. Use cruise control on the open road.

* Slow down. The optimum speed for most cars is between 38 and 48 miles per hour. Speeds over 55 decrease fuel efficiency.

* Check tire air pressure. Improperly inflated tires cost a mile or two per gallon.

* Get your vehicle's fuel system serviced - the air inductor and fuel injection system. Also, get an engine and emissions analysis to make sure your vehicle is operating at maximum efficiency. Keep all fluids filled.

* Buy regular. It is cheaper, and according to Joel Burrows, of Precision Tune Auto Care, higher octane gas yields lower miles per gallon.

* Avoid unnecessary idling.

* Don't carry unnecessary weight in the vehicle.

Sources: The Car Care Council; Joel Burrows, aka "The Car Doctor," Precision Tune Auto Care