Trains are carrying more passengers and high fuel prices are influencing choices when it comes to buying a new car.

Where once large family sedans such as Commodores and Falcons dominated car sales, in recent times smaller, more economical cars have been making a challenge.

And new figures show that scooter sales are on the increase, up by seven per cent for the first half of this year.

More motorbikes are being sold as well.

Not only that but the number of people opting to hop on a bike is on the rise.

A recent report by the Cycling Promotion Fund says that between 2001 and 2006 there was a 28 per cent increase in trips made on bikes.

The same report said choosing a bicycle over a car was saving Australians $35 million a year at the petrol pump.

What all this could suggest is that many motorists have given up hoping fuel prices will come down - or that they do not believe there is anything governments can do to influence the price of fuel.

And the reality is that there is little governments will do to change the price of petrol.

The excise applied to a litre of fuel has been in place for years and is unlikely to change while the GST, applied after the excise, provides a tidy return to government.

Even knocking 5c off the excise, as suggested by the Federal Liberal Party, is hardly going to save a household budget.

Whether fuel is $1.70 a litre or $1.75 a litre is not by itself worth a change of government. At either price it is still expensive.

One estimate suggested that shaving 5c off the price per litre of fuel would save the average Australian household less than $100 a year.

That is a helpful saving but would not come close to the savings a family could make by opting to run a more economical vehicle.

It is a choice many families have clearly already made.