Most of us remember our first "gear bike." Ed Wrench rides his to work every day. "When I was in the eighth grade, I took all my earnings from my summer job as a gardener to buy a new bike -- the Legnano Grand Primo ten speed," remembers Wrench, who works as staff scientist for A/CD in San Diego, California. "I came up $20 short, so I told my mother that if she lent me the money, I would never, ever, ever need to buy another bike." He was good to his word, and by commuting to work on his 33-year-old bike, he's being good to the environment. Wrench is one of a number of A/CD employees who have replaced their gas-guzzling commuter cars with "greener" modes of transportation. Wrench's co-worker, Dave Vermilyea, zips to and from work on an electric scooter, passing the San Diego freeway on part of his trip. "You don't look very cool on a scooter, but when I'm traveling faster on my scooter than the freeway traffic, that's a hoot," says Vermilyea, title here. In Fort Wayne, Indiana, Burt Caldwell and Nelson Preble drive gas-electric hybrid cars that get anywhere from 50 to 75 miles per gallon, as does Larry Ross in San Diego. And, no, the cars don't need to be plugged in at night and don't top out at 35 miles per hour. When you step on the brake, the electric motor becomes a generator and recharges the battery. When you step on the gas, you can reach speeds of 120 miles per hour. "Some of my co-workers share my enthusiasm for the advanced design of this car," says Preble about his two-seat Honda Insight. "We are a company of engineers after all." In all cases, these A/CD commuters like the extra green they are bringing -- to the world's air quality and to their wallet. The hybrid cars can travel nearly 600 miles between fill-ups, and Vermilyea says it costs less than a nickel a day to charge his electric scooter. Out on the road, they have all been on the receiving end of odd looks, close calls and, in Wrench's case, a couple of bike-to-bumper collisions. But their reasons for starting on scooters, bikes and hybrid cars are always strong enough to overcome the nay-sayers and negative experiences. "My daughter is very green," says Caldwell. "When she got a full scholarship  to college, she told me I could have the money we had saved for tuition to buy a car, but only if it was a hybrid car. I respected her decision and now she's proud of me. Even if I wasn't getting 60 miles a gallon, this car would be worth every penny I paid for it."			A/CD's green commuters include (top photo, l. to r): Larry Ross, Dave Vermilyea and Ed Wrench in San Diego, along with (bottom photo, l. to r) Burt Caldwell and Nelson Preble in Fort Wayne.