Go Green, Slow Down, Save Money
By Pippa Sorley
Filed Under Green Living |
I admit it. As an adrenaline junkie I like to do things fast. I like to ski fast, bike fast, I even prefer running trails over hiking them. Lo and behold- I like to drive fast. That is, until I learned about all the crazy costs that come with putting my pedal to the metal.
With peak oil, the ever-rising price of gas (which is perhaps a blessing in disguise), and climate change swiftly sweeping across the planet, it’s time for all of us to pay heed to the collective effects of our driving habits. With the US consuming over 400 million gallons of petroleum per day, we in turn produce about 7.8 billion pounds of carbon dioxide emissions…every day. Perhaps it’s come time for us to just slow down.
According to fueleconomy.gov, most engines don’t run efficiently past 60 miles per hour. For every 5 miles per hour you drive over 60, you are most likely wasting 20 cents’ worth of gasoline per gallon. And, this of course doesn’t take into account the environmental cost of driving too fast. Who knows how many CO2 emissions can be saved by chilling out a bit while driving?
While drivers have long known that driving slow in the fast lane means getting more miles to the gallon, now airlines are trying it, too. By adding a few minutes to flights, air carriers such as Southwest and Jet Blue are saving millions of dollars a year. One Northwest Airlines flight from Paris to Minneapolis, going only 9 mph slower, saved the company 162 gallons of fuel, which in turn saved them $525. It added exactly eight minutes to the flight time and saved them some serious loot.
UPS has also made an interesting discovery in fuel economy. They have routed their vast fleet of delivery trucks to reduce left turns. Yup. To limit drivers’ left turns. But how can rights be better than lefts? It seems that sitting in the left lane, engine idling, waiting for oncoming traffic to clear for a left-hand turn to be made, is pretty wasteful. Okay, maybe not a big deal if you’re running some errands in your Mini Coop or Smart Car, but immensely wasteful to a company with a fleet of 95,000 trucks burning millions of gallons of gas per week. By implementing a special software program, the company maps out routes for every one of its brown-clad drivers, dramatically reducing the number of left-hand turns they make. According to UPS spokeswoman Heather Robinson, the company has succeeded in shaving 28.5 million miles off its delivery routes, resulting in savings of approximately 3 million gallons of gas and 31,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions.
eCo Driving Tips:
- Always remember to check your tire pressure especially before taking longer trips-low tire pressure burns an extra 10 cents of gas per gallon
- Get your filters checked regularly-replacing a clogged air filter can improve your car’s gas mileage by as much as 10%
- Chill out! Aggressive driving (speeding, rapid acceleration, braking) can lower gas mileage by 33%, wasting about 50 cents per gallon!
- You can of course save plenty of money on gas by carpooling, riding your bike, taking public transportation or walking
Posted on May 19, 2008 |
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5 Responses to “Go Green, Slow Down, Save Money”
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Hey Pippa,
Great piece. I was an exceptionally fast driver in my 20s (surprise), and have finally grokked the need to slow down … in all phases of life (maybe except skiing).
Now I know I’m do-gooding, too. Nice one!
Thanks Greg - who would’ve thunk that our penchant for speed could leave such a harmful footprint? I guess we’ll just have to get our yayas on the ski slopes or skates or bikes…
doesn’t sound so bad at all…!
What exactly is a yaya?
that’s a very good question…
I’m not sure its a good idea to slow down. I think that the faster you drive, not only the sooner you can be somewhere so one can cram more junk into their day, hurry, hurry, hurry (and by texting while we drive too fast) and that way a person can keep the high productivity of the average American worker, that is, the amount of hours we work per week
higher than all other first world countries. I say drive fast, and drive often in your big SUV so we can use up the remaining oil on this planet so we can just move on technologically from our double edged problem of oil! (triple edged??)