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The price of oil might have dropped significantly with the current financial crisis, but we're still feeling the pinch at the pump.

And since oil is non-renewable resource, petrol is only going to get more expensive - the head of shell has said peak oil will hit in 2015.

So here's some top tips, from the Australian Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas, for saving transport miles and money.

1. Car pooling

   The biggest advantage of car-pooling is that it's free - you can use your current car without buying a single thing.

   Most of our cars tend carry only one person at a time a recent survey showed that Australians are among the worst in the world for single driver car trips.

   Increasing the number of people in your car from one to two will effectively halve your fuel consumption (per person)!

   A small car carrying two people is roughly as fuel efficient as if the same two people were each riding motor-scooters. Car-pooling encourages community growth and there are already a bunch of websites dedicated to assisting people to find car-pool buddies - whether you are looking for a ride in someone else's car or offering a seat in your own.

2. The one-car household

   Until quite recently, it was uncommon for households to own more than one car - now many households own two cars - and that's twice the cost.

   There are enormous savings to be made just by unregistering a car. You'll save money on registration, insurance and maintenance. And, having one less car forces you to car pool - at least with your own family, so you'll notice a decrease in fuel costs too.

3. Public transport

   In terms of fuel consumption per person, buses are potentially better than any other form of powered transport on the road, perhaps with the exception of some electric bicycles. If you factor in the cost (including money, time and stress!) of parking your car in the city, public transport is the better option.

   Assuming you pay an adult bus fare - about $2.50 if you use a mulipass ticket - short trips are cheaper by car than by bus. However, if you have to pay any more than $3 for parking, then the bus will beat the car even on a short return trip!

   But don't forget that you should factor in the cost of registering and maintaining a car, then the savings are much more than just the cost of the petrol.

4. Cycling

   Many trips we make by car are of such a short distance that they may not compare to the cost of bus travel. However, if your journey is that short, it's likely to be within cycling distance.

   When dedicated cycling lanes are available, cycling can be faster than any other form of transport, and parking is easy and free! Apart from being the perfect way to beat petrol prices, further advantages of cycling include improved fitness and cleaner air. It’s a good investment and a great way to stay fit.

   Even if you already drive an efficient small car, it doesn’t take much riding for a bicycle to“pay itself off in fuel savings alone. If you have a large car and are able to regularly leave it at home and use a bike instead, you can literally save thousands of dollars. Plus, if you’re cycling 100+ kilometres each week, you might as well throw away your gym membership and save another few hundred dollars a year!

5. Mopeds

   Mopeds (powered bicycles) are more fuel-efficient than motorscooters and motorbikes, mainly because they operate at low speeds (therefore less wind resistance) and have human-power (pedalling) to take some of the load off the motor.

   An advantage of mopeds is that they can be bought as quite inexpensive "Do-It-Yourself" (DIY) kits you can attach to your existing bike, and are available in electric or petrol form.

   Mopeds aren't cheap (most kits cost more than AU$1,000), so you need to make sure you get one that matches your distance and terrain. For instance, petrol-powered kits are well suited to continuous long-distance riding, while the electric kits are well suited to shorter distance, stop-start city riding.

   If you have a lot of hilly terrain you also need to be extra cautious in choosing the model to ensure it is geared appropriately. Electric-powered bikes are quiet and cost less to run, but current battery technology means that you typically only get 25-50km before needing to recharge (which takes several hours), and the batteries themselves need to be replaced every few years.

   If you leave a small car at home and ride the moped even just 40km a week, the initial investment is paid off in 8 years.

6. Electric motorscooters

   Electricity can come from a diverse range of energy sources (e.g. coal, gas, oil, wind, hydro, solar, biomass, geothermal). It therefore represents a potentially more "secure" source of transport energy than petrol or diesel, which come almost exclusively from crude oil.

   Electric motors are more efficient than combustion engines, so they can also make better use of the energy. Electric scooters are relatively inexpensive ($3,000 brand new) compared with the most fuel-efficient cars, and can represent a useful vehicle for short-distance (eg city) commuting.

   The main limitations are the distance they can travel per battery-charge (typically 50km or less) and the time taken to charge the battery (typically 4+ hours). You should investigate the cost of battery replacement (and how regularly it needs to be done) before buying an electric scooter.

7. Motorcycles

   A simple 50cc scooter can be bought new for around $2,000, and should reliably deliver around 2L/100km commuting at low speeds (up to about 50kph). The major advantages of these small scooters include their ease in riding (no gears - just a throttle and a brake), plus the fact that you do only need a car license (up to 50cc).

   With bike licenses now costing around $500, this may be a significant consideration. Small motorbikes (eg 100cc-200cc) cost closer to $4,000 and should deliver 2.5-3L/100km cruising at less than 80kph on the open road.

   A word of caution: many bikes on the road in Australia consume around 5 to 7 litres per 100km and are therefore even worse than some small cars. The reason bikes are so inefficient is mainly that they have a lot of wind drag. Also, bikes sold in Australia are more commonly engineered for high performance, not fuel economy.

   If you want fuel efficiency on two wheels, you need to go for the smaller models (preferably less than 250cc, and probably not a sports bike) and you need to ride slowly - fuel efficiency gets worse the faster you ride - staying under 80kph is essential for the best fuel economy.

8. A smaller car

   Fuel consumption is related to vehicle weight (increases friction) and vehicle size (increases wind resistance). Cars that are small, aerodynamic and light are inherently more fuel efficient than cars that are large, non-aerodynamic and heavy (think of a rounded hatchback compared with a big square 4WD).

   The Green Vehicle Guide is a good start for finding out how well different cars perform relative to each other.

9. Hybrid cars

   Hybrid cars are only really effective in stop-start traffic and lose their advantage in highway driving conditions.

   When your car stops in traffic, all the motion energy is usually lost, as heat on the brake pads. Hybrid cars re-capture the car's motion energy when braking and store it in batteries so it can be used to re-accelerate the car when needed, using an electric motor.

   Hybrid vehicles are able to switch the petrol engine off whilst sitting in traffic, and accelerate just using the electric motor - this reduces fuel consumed while idling in traffic queues. A hybrid car's computer system decides when to use the petrol motor and when to use the electric motor and tries to get the optimal fuel consumption under all conditions.

   The major advantages of hybrid cars (over conventional cars) result from their ability to re-capture energy in stop-start driving and (b) minimise fuel losses when idling in traffic.