Ian Yung can remember the good old days.

Two years ago, when Yung first brought his car to school, the price of gas was much lower than it is now.

“There was a point when it was only $1.30 or $1.40, and it’s been going up ever since,” Yung said.

Yung, a McCormick junior, is one of many students who have been reconsidering their driving habits in light of recent increases in gas prices.

“I try not to just drive around to get away from campus,” he said. “Now I only do it if I have a place to go.”

Brendan Cullen, a Speech freshman, takes the El if he needs to go to Chicago and rides his bike and walks frequently.

“You can limit your driving, especially when you’re a college student,” he said, pointing out that he only drives if he needs to go to Best Buy, Home Depot or Jewel-Osco Food Store.

But some students who work off campus find it impossible not to drive. Eric Young, a McCormick junior, participated in the Co-op program at 3Com in Mount Prospect last quarter and commuted 40 miles each day.

“I just had to do it,” Young said.

Now that he’s back at school, he said he drives much less and uses public transportation to go to Chicago, especially if the difference between driving and taking the El is only 10 to 15 minutes.

Weinberg freshman Erin Stiling, who recently began working in Winnetka, found other forms of transportation inconvenient.

“The trains don’t run that frequently,” she said, adding that the 40-minute bike ride to work took too long and the $14 cab fare was too expensive.

Stiling plans to bring her car to campus Sunday but does not plan to use it so much that gas prices would affect her driving habits.

Commuter students also must take increased gas prices into consideration. Seung Lee, a Weinberg junior, plans to live at home next year and drive 40 miles to campus from the far South Side of Chicago.

“(The gas prices) will probably affect how much I go back and forth,” Lee said. “It’ll mean being on campus for the whole day or sleeping over.”

But she sees the price of her commute as minimal compared to room and board costs.

Gas prices have not reached a point where students have become overly concerned.

“Unless it gets to over $2, I’m not too worried,” said Yung, who drives 50 to 60 miles a week.

At this point, students do not seem ready to make drastic changes in their driving habits.

“The convenience of driving still far outweighs the gas price,” Young said. “My car is relatively gas-efficient — I don’t drive an SUV.”

Cullen shells out more than $35 every time he fills the tank of his Jeep but said he does not regret bringing his car to school.

“Gas is expensive everywhere, so I didn’t think I’d be saving that much money by leaving [my car] at home,” he said. “High gas prices are better than a gas shortage because the prices will eventually go down.”

For Cullen, it is simply a matter of budgeting.

“If I can’t afford it, I won’t drive until my next paycheck,” he said.