More gas conserving tips

Non-essential travel will be ended, idling of vehicles will be limited as much as possible and air conditioning will not be used. Carpooling will become essential.

Utilize your local bus systems to get around.

mowing grass less frequently

street sweeping could be cancelled for a few days to conserve fuel

work schedules also are being adjusted so employees can carpool, drive at off-peak hours to avoid traffic congestion or telecommute.

employees should be encouraged to walk or bike to work.

officers would patrol their beats on bicycle or on foot. Some calls would be handled over the phone, she said.

Police in Fayetteville also will be walking and biking more, Pitts said. When not answering a call, they will park their cruisers in crime-prone areas to be close enough to patrol on foot, he said.

Wake County Sheriff Donnie Harrison has obtained fuel cards for his deputies so they can fill their tanks closer to their patrol areas.

"I didn't want them driving all the way from Zebulon and Wendell or the Apex-New Hill area to downtown Raleigh to fill up," said Harrison, who also has made the fleet of patrol cars more fuel-efficient in recent years. "I took the SUVs off patrol and gave them to K-9 units, school resource officers and crime prevention units that aren't patrolling every day."

The sheriff also has ordered deputies to patrol smarter to conserve gas.

"We're having deputies sit in middle of their patrol zones and do paperwork and try to cut their cars off," he said.

Deputy Kenneth Bagwell, who covers both Wendell and Zebulon, has taken the order to heart.

"I can sort of judge where the majority of my calls are going to come from and lean that way more than the other," Bagwell said. "We are very conscientious because of so much traveling on the job."