Desperate times call for, well, a little Yankee ingenuity.

When gasoline at $2.50 a gallon looks like a bargain, investing $1,800 in a motor scooter that gets 95 miles per gallon makes sense.

It did for Lynn Dube of Perham, a small northern Aroostook County town near Caribou.

Dube is one of many Maine residents who have made changes in their spending and travel habits while gas prices hover near $3 a gallon and threaten to climb higher.

Dube commutes 12 miles to Caribou, where she works as an administrative assistant at Eastern Maine HomeCare. Her husband drives farther, about 25 miles, to Easton. Then after work, he drives another 40 miles each day for a mail route.

When gas prices began spiking a year ago, the couple did some thinking. To improve their overall gas mileage, Dube let her husband use her 1992 Honda Civic instead of the larger 1998 Buick LeSabre he had been driving.

For her own commute, last July Dube purchased an E-Ton Beamer Matrix 50cc motor scooter.

“It’s the high-end model,” she said with pride.

Because of the scooter’s small size, a motorcycle license is not required to operate it, Dube said. But she travels on the highway, not on the shoulder, and can reach speeds of up to 50 mph.

“Most of the time, I go between 40 and 50 mph,” she said.

But the numbers that really make Dube boast are the 95-98 miles per gallon the E-Ton gets.

“If I can ride it all week, it costs $2.49 in gas,” she said.

Dube, mother of a 4-year-old, is no stranger to alternative vehicles.

“I’ve driven three-wheelers, dirt bikes, motorcycles,” she said, and Dube faithfully wears a helmet.

She began using the scooter in late April, and hopes to continue using it through November, as she did last year. She won’t use it in the rain.

“It’s a little cool in the mornings. Your ears do get a little cold in November,” Dube said. But with boots, gloves and the helmet, the drive is tolerable.

With a couple of small cargo racks and a backpack, Dube can even haul some groceries.

“I’ve had a lot of weird things on that,” including 20 dozen donated golf balls for a tournament she was helping to run. The scooter does not carry passengers.

“It’s a great savings,” Dube said, and estimates the scooter saves her family $20 to $25 weekly.

Alveine Laliberte lives in Stetson and commutes 38 miles to work in Old Town, where she works for a housing authority that serves elderly and disabled people. She used to drive Interstate 95, but has discovered that by taking back roads, she gets better gas mileage in her 2004 Toyota Highlander, and can cut the drive by six miles.

By driving 55 mph or less – which would be hazardous on I-95, she said – gas efficiency improves. The trip does take about 10 minutes longer on the back roads.

Laliberte has her eyes on the new hybrid version of the Highlander – or an MG or Mini Cooper.

“We’re not going to see that $1.89 gas anymore,” she said, reflecting a sentiment that seems to be a consensus.

High gas prices nudged Vicki McBride of Pembroke in Washington County to begin carpooling to Machias, where she works at Downeast Community Hospital.

But she won’t give up her 2001 Toyota Highlander, even though it gets just 20-25 mpg, out of respect for the often challenging winter driving conditions on the 65-mile daily round trip.

A co-worker and friend, Karen Theriault, drives to McBride’s home from Eastport, then the pair continue together to Machias, alternating the driving between them.

“We do it by the week,” she said. If one needs to leave work early, they drive separately.

McBride works in the business office, and Theriault works as a compliance officer. The pair enjoy talking about work and other things as they drive together.

“It’s actually better – our trip goes quicker,” McBride said. When the roads are icy or snowy, the passenger provides moral support, she said.

“We have other folks we’re trying to add in,” for a day here and there, McBride said.

Moving closer to Machias is not an option, because her husband works in Eastport.

Robin Burgess lives in Beaver Cove, a small town four miles from Greenville. A self-employed massage therapist, she has changed the way she does business because of gas prices.

“I’m going to work every other week now,” she said, cramming seven to 12 clients into a day’s work.

Burgess travels the Golden Road to Millinocket, when weather permits, to an office she uses there, and also drives to Guilford, Milo and Brownville.

“The price of gas is taking a huge cut out of my earnings,” she reported. Her 2002 Subaru Forester gets about 27 mpg.

Since she has been in business for 13 years, she is confident in charging $65 an hour for her work. But because of competition, she does not want to pass on the increased cost of driving to her customers.

“I’ve doubled my costs. I’m feeling it – it’s real tight,” she said, and she has taken a second job to make ends meet.

Burgess believes the gas prices are keeping tourists away from the Moosehead Lake region, and some of those tourists were clients.

She used to travel periodically to a resort in the Bath area to work for a couple of days, but now turns down those jobs. Her contacts there have urged Burgess to move to southern Maine, but she refuses.

“It’s not the kind of life I want. I like driving the Golden Road. I like seeing the wildlife,” she said.

Reader comments

Comments e-mailed by readers responding to a query about driving habits on the newspaper’s Web site, bangordailynews.com, included:

. A man who reported moving from Steuben in Hancock County to Bangor, “where life is within a five-mile radius.”

. An elementary school secretary who drives 34 miles round trip each day to work. Since gas prices spiked, “I no longer make the longer trips to my son’s high school sports events.”

. “In Aroostook County every road is the long road,” wrote a woman. She began carpooling to work, then changed jobs, and her husband now drops her off at work. A more efficient car is next. “We are looking for something that will get better gas mileage than a Honda Civic and still be able to get to work in the winter.”

. An engineer who works in Newport and lives in Brewer did not change her commuting habits, “but I sure have changed my personal habits. I try to make as many stops as needed on my way home at night – groceries, ATM, fill up the tank. Once my car is parked in the driveway, it does not move again” until morning.

. A woman who lives in Pittsfield who recently got a new job in Orono bought a more fuel-efficient car, then began carpooling. “This is our third week … We both entered this arrangement with some trepidation. We enjoyed the freedom of staying late when we want to or having our vehicle to run errands during lunch.” She estimates carpooling is saving her $40 to $45 a week.

The Web site inquiry also drew this response from a Dallas, Texas, reader:

“I, personally, have not, nor intend to change my driving habits due to recent increases in the price of gasoline. I normally commute on a motorcycle that burns gas at a rate of 44 mph. If the weather is not cooperating, I will drive my Civic Hybrid to work. – Douglas Kazdoy, a smug hybrid owner.”