Praktan Kokila and record high gasoline prices arrived in California about the same time this spring.

That's why the Redlands resident was navigating through hundreds of motorcycles in the San Bernardino showroom of Chaparral Motorsports. Fed up with spending $60 a week to fill his Infinity G35 with premium gasoline, Kokila was ready to move from four wheels to two.

Kokila was following friend Mike Devi, who put away his BMW 330i — now reserved for weekends — in favor of a black Yamaha sport bike. After four hours of shopping, Kokila rolled out with a blue version of the same cycle, which gets 40 mpg and holds $15 worth of premium fuel at current prices.

"I've wanted one for a while," Kokila, 27, said of the $9,200 motorcycle. "And with the high gas prices, now's a good time."

Steep pump prices are driving motorists to transportation that sips or eschews gasoline, and retailers of motorcycles, scooters and bicycles report that sales are revving up. Although buyers, including Kokila and Devi, aren't ready to dump their cars, many are complaining about fuel bills as they make their purchases, retailers say.

When fuel prices spiked in the third quarter of last year, motorcycle sales jumped 16 percent compared with the same period in 2004, said Motorcycle Industry Council spokesman Mike Mount. Third-quarter sales of scooters soared 65 percent.

"We can't say for sure that fuel prices were driving that," Mount said. "But it would appear that with the amount of activity and media attention on fuel prices, that it has had some effect."

In the first three months of 2006, motorcycle sales rose 8.6 percent and scooter sales inched up about 2 percent from the year-earlier period. Those numbers show a "strong start to the year," he said, because sales are highest during spring and summer.

At Chaparral Motorsports, whose showroom has row after row of shiny and colorful Hondas, Suzukis, Kawasakis and other makes, sales manager Jon Gerwin said cycles were zooming out the door at a 30 percent faster pace than at this time last year. Motorcycles that get good mileage are the most popular, he said, and many customers say that they're afraid gas will hit $4 a gallon.

Chaparral salesman Eddy Raisch said scooters are popular among young people, especially college students, who leave their cars parked when traveling short distances.

For the maker of Vespa, the iconic retro-chic scooter from Italy, it has been pedal to the metal since last fall, said Paolo Timoni of Piaggio Group Americas, the New York-based subsidiary.

"Since September 2005, when gas prices first hit $3 a gallon, we have seen acceleration in the market," Timoni said.

Last year, the company sold 10,000 scooters in the U.S. It expects to top that by 25 percent to 30 percent this year, he said.

Even the Segway, the battery-powered "human transporter" that was dismissed when it debuted in 2001, has seen a boost.

Klee Kleber of Bedford, N.H.-based Segway Inc. said sales through mid-May had doubled from the same period last year. He declined to give sales figures.

"I think a lot of it has to do with gas prices," Kleber said, adding that other factors, such as environmental issues, also influence sales.

Tim Blumenthal of Bikes Belong Coalition, a national group of bicycle suppliers and retailers, said members were seeing customers who are frustrated over pump prices and looking for alternative transportation, especially for short trips. The coalition plans to launch a marketing campaign this month to encourage people to ride bicycles for trips shorter than two miles.

At Beverly Hills Bike Shop, manager Eric Romney said there had been a "huge increase" in people wanting to buy bicycles to commute to work.

"Once a day, we have someone coming in wanting a bike to ride to work," he said.