Recently, students at Central have been cutting back on using their cars. Instead, they have been taking to the streets and sidewalks of Ellensburg on bikes, longboards and even skywalkers.

Students have used bikes and longboards for years, but there has been a noticeable increase in the number of bike and longboard users this quarter.

This may have something to do with students being concerned about carbon emissions.

Carbon emissions, produced by burning fossil fuels, such as coal, oil and natural gas, are a contributing factor to global warming.

Regardless of the environmental effects, using a bike or longboard to commute to work and school instead driving a car is great way for students to save money on gas.

Kelly Coventry, freshman physical therapy major, has enjoyed owning a longboard for about a month.

Coventry owns a car, but uses her blue-wheeled Punked brand longboard to get around town.

“I use it for short trips,” Coventry said. “It’s cheap.”

Coventry believes that the town’s relatively small size has a lot to do with the town’s large number of bikers and long boarders.

“Bikes and longboards are better modes of transportation because Ellensburg is a small community,” Coventry said

Being a physical therapy major, Coventry also sees longboards and bicycles as an ecologically friendly way to rehabilitate people who have sustained leg injuries in the past.

“[Leg] rehabilitation is all about [the patients] gaining muscles in their ankles and legs,” Coventry said.

Not everyone uses their longboard or bike as a secondary mode of transportation, for some people, it is their only way to get around at a decent speed.

Quinton Miller, junior film major, has been longboarding for around five years.

“Me and my friends built [our longboards] in June 2010,” Miller said.

Miller, unlike Coventry, does not have a choice in whether he uses his longboard or a car.

“This is my car,” Miller said in a joking manner.

Not everyone has a longboard or a bicycle, but anyone that can afford gas for their car can easily purchase a longboard or a bicycle for anywhere between $60 to $1000.

Miller and his friends were short on cash and needed a cheap way to get around, so they decided to make their own decks. A deck is the name of the part of a long board that its rider stands on.

“It’s just plywood,” Miller said, when referring to his deck.

Despite claims that longboarding is dangerous, Miller has never got in a serious wreck on his longboard.

“I fall when I go too slow and hit a crack, but I’ve never fell at high speed before,” Miller said.

Regardless of why students choose to use a bike or longboard instead of driving, one fact remains: students at Central love to bike and longboard, and will likely continue to do so until ice and snow cover the sidewalk.