Tired of the astronomical prices at the gas pump, Aaron Luoma took matters into his own hands this summer. Luoma, an administrator at Corcoran High School, sent out an e-mail to colleagues who he knew live in Hanford, tossing up an idea of vanpooling -- something many correctional officers in the community had been doing for quite some time. As soon as he approached them, "quite a few" fuel-conscious colleagues jumped at the opportunity, Luoma says. "I live in Hanford and work in Corcoran. There are several teachers and staff members who are like me. It seemed such a waste for each person to drive to Corcoran everyday," Luoma said.

So he organized a vanpool through the help of a regional transportation agency.

"I was spending $400 a month on gas," said Luoma, who drives a Toyota Sequoia, a full-size SUV.

Thirteen people have signed up to his van. About eight of them share the ride each day, Luoma said.

It's definitely paying off for Luoma.

During the last two months, Luoma says he has spent $62 a month in vanpooling to commute the 40-mile round-trip five days a week. "That's less than I spend for one tank of gas," Luoma said.

Across the King County region, the lingering impact of higher gas prices is forcing residents to rethink the way they get to and from work. As the cost of gas topped $4 a gallon for regular gas in the Valley this summer, the dip that prices have taken since seems to have little effect on motorists who remember the far lower prices of just a few years ago still too well.

Kings County Area Public Transit Agency Executive Director Ron Hughes said the new interest in his agency's vanpool program correlates with the meteoric rise in gas price seen earlier this year.

"During the last four-five months, we've been buying 10-15 vans a month," Hughes said.

Though little publicized, the KCAPTA vanpool program is booming -- mostly by word of mouth. In fact, it's huge.

Today, the some 400 vans issued by the agency meander through the five-county area spanning from Kern to Madera counties.

"It's a well-kept secret," Hughes says.

In the absence of a conventional metropolitan public transportation such as subways and time-efficient bus services, the vanpool program may be offering a key option that helps take a bite off their gas bills and help the environment.

The agency says the cost saving to society achieved by its vanpool program is staggering.

In 2007, vanpool vehicles were responsible for eliminating 373,500 vehicle commuting trips, reducing 176 tons of car emissions from the atmosphere, saving a total of $54.7 million in societal costs by saving money for the riders and avoiding fatalities and injuries, according to data provided by the KCAPTA.

"We need to clean up the air and clear our highways. The only viable program out there is a vanpool type of project where people share a ride and travel to work," Hughes said. "We're all concerned about the air. We're all concerned about congestion. But what are we doing about it? The easiest solution is take 11 cars off the road and put these people in a van. We've done that 400 times."

Here's how the vanpool program works:

Let's say you are commuting to Fresno from Hanford five times a day and have at least eight people you can vanpool with. That's a commute averaging 84 miles a day, or 1,680 miles a month.

The total monthly cost for leasing a van -- including fuel, maintenance and even a vehicle wash -- is $1,291. For nine riders, the cost would be $143 a month per person. But Kings County throws in a $35-a-month voucher for vanpoolers for a year, so the per-person cost is $108 for the first year.

State employees can claim up to $65 a month, so their costs are $43 per person. Federal employees, who can claim up to $115 a month, won't pay a dime in that scenario.

Dee Lovette, who vanpools to the Pleasant Valley Prison in Coalinga with 14 other people from Lemoore, gets a similar benefit.

Her monthly share of the cost was $116 for October, but she gets a $65 reimbursement from the state for vanpooling. So her out-of-pocket cost for the month is $51, said the personnel supervisor at the prison. Lemoore to Coalinga is a 40-minute commute each way and 80-miles round-trip -- a commute that would probably cost a compact car driver about $250 a month at today's gas prices.

"It's a substantial saving for me because what we pay every month is how much an average person pays to fill up a car," Lovette said. "We do take fuel into consideration, but we don't have to worry about maintenance or pick-up and drop-off.. It's comfortable, clean and reliable."

Lovette, who has vanpooled to work for six years, said she was among the second group of prison employees to organize a van pool.

Today, there are at least six vans taking people between Lemoore to Coalinga throughout the day, she said.

The history of the vanpool program here goes back to the tragic 1999 farmworker van accident, which killed 13 farmworkers near the rural Fresno County town of Five Points. The crash prompted federal lawmakers to pass a law to provide funding to create safe and affordable transportation for farmworkers -- hence the birth of the KCAPTA.

With the federal funding, the agency launched the Agricultural Industries Transportation Services in 2002 with 123 new vans.

Around the same time, the vanpool program for other commuters was launched in response to a request by Corcoran State Prison employees who commuted from Visalia, Hughes said. This program for regular commuters has since enjoyed a rapid, steady growth.

"We started with one van and went through a rapid growth, and we plateaued for a while when the gas was about $3 a gallon. Then we took off again when the gas price started climbing this year," Hughes said.

Today, a wide range of commuters in and outside Kings County are participating in the KCAPTA's vanpool program. Besides groups that commute to the Lemoore base, downtown Fresno and 10 prisons scattered around the Valley, there are groups using the vans in such remote places as Taft and Salinas Valley, Hughes said.