Kevork Djansezian / AP Brent Hatch checks the solar panels on his solar-powered surrey bike in South Pasadena on Tuesday. Hatch is combating high gas prices by using the bike.

SOUTH PASADENA — For Brent Hatch, Earth Day was just like any other: dropping his kids off at school, driving off to work, running errands around town — all in his solar-powered car.

Not that he didn't get a few double takes when he made the rounds Tuesday morning with his five children packed into his surrey bike, an eight-seat contraption that is more often seen shuttling tourists up and down oceanfront boardwalks and through amusement parks.

"It's got the little fringe on top and for some reason it always seems to make people smile," said Hatch from his home in South Pasadena. "But it makes me smile even more, knowing that I don't have to pay for gas."

Indeed, it was more about saving money than ecology that prompted Hatch to buy the used vehicle two years ago for $2,000 from a beachfront bike rental shop. With gas going for about $2.25 a gallon then, he and his wife, who are parents of seven children, calculated they were paying as much as $700 a month to fuel the family van.

They quickly cut that bill in half but ran into a roadblock they hadn't anticipated.

Surrey bikes are pedaled, usually on flat surfaces like boardwalks or parking lots. South Pasadena, a town of tree-shaded cottages and Mayberrylike storefronts, is a warren of hilly streets.

"My wife took the kids to school one day and couldn't pedal back up the hill," Hatchsaid.

He installed an electric motor but found himself running out of power during errands, necessitating that he beg someone to let him plug his car into their wall socket before he could return home.

He decided to go solar.

"I must have gone to 10 different places," he said of looking for a store that would equip his car with solar panels. "They all said, No one wants that kind of stuff. They want solar panels for their houses, not their cars.' "

Finally, he found a person who knew how to rig three small panels on the vehicle's roof, and he was back on the road.

Now, the 45-year-old real estate agent is hoping more people will follow his lead, build themselves solar cars and use them for short trips around town, saving the family gas-guzzler for longer journeys.

If enough do, he said, they could cut pollution and probably gas prices as well.

And he stresses that anyone can build a solar car.

"I don't have any background in engineering or anything," he said. "If I can do this, imagine what someone who knows what they're doing can do."