TreeHugger Picks: Driving Tips
by Collin Dunn, Corvallis, OR, USA on 05. 3.06
Driving cars and burning gasoline can be a pretty contentious subject. Doing it is not good for the environment, but that doesn't stop the majority of us, and though there are some nice alternatives (like hybrids and biodiesel), there is no silver bullet; nothing is going to stop most of the world's drivers from putting the petal to the metal. With gas prices hitting record highs and no relief in sight, we could all stand to use less, so for anyone who doesn't own a hybrid, or burn biodiesel, here are some ways to clean up your driving.
1) Drive the speed limit. Seriously. Unfeel the need for speed.. It's the single most effective thing a TreeHugger can do behind the wheel.
2) Inflate your tires to the proper pressure; it reduces rolling resistance and helps your car operate more efficiently. Even better, inflate your tires with nitrogen, and they'll go further without needing to be topped off.
3) Idle engines are the devil's plaything. Unnecessary idling is just a bad thing all the way around.
4) Use a handy car-share service, if you can live without your wheels. If not, share your car and find/start a carpool with eRideShare or NuRide.
5) Finally, ditch your car and ride your bike! More bikes than cars were sold in the US last year. Let's keep it that way.
It's all well to quote statistics that more bikes than cars are sold in the USA in a given year, but what's the use if so many of those are toy bikes made for racing, doing tricks on skate park ramps or for tearing down mountainsides, rather than bikes designed for city use and in-town commuting, like those sold by Velorution in London (see the Velorution.biz blog for an idea of these)?
Practical bikes designed for comfortable and dependable in-town use are almost unknown on the North American continent: even a bright new design for a city bike by Bleijh design ( http://www.bleijh.com/ ), designers of the Sandwich bike reviewed here a few weeks ago, which was bought and put into production by the multinational Giant, is only marketed in the west coast countries of continental Europe and not at all in North America...
The sad thing is that in so many places you see almost as many bikes sitting on racks on top of lumbering SUVs on their way out of town to tear up wild vegetation as are actually being put to legitimate use by in-town riders.
Reminds me of a quote from a poster by the Dutch-based urban art collective Loesje: "Waarom rijden er toch zoveel fietsers in auto's rond?" (So anyway, how come there are so many cyclists riding around in cars?)
More bikes, yes, but more bikes *made* for commuting needs like in more sensible countries like Denmark, the Netherlands, Japan...
6) If at all possible, see if you can telecommute. Even one day less on the road can help.
In the comments of the second link of 2), there's an interesting discussion and it seems that maybe that tip wasn't so useful after all. Some places were recommending it, but apparently if you don't drive a F1 or an airplane, it shouldn't make much difference and is overkill..
The largest issues facing bicycle use are tied to development policies, not personal choice. Most Americans couldn't ride a bike if they wanted to. Bikes being transported on cars reflects the reality that people are "land locked" by freeways and other developments that preclude the use of a bicycle for anything practical like local shopping or commuting to work.
I had to drive around London yestarday and today. My mpg went down to bellow 40mpg (US) for the first time because of being stuck in traffic all day.
Never, ever drive in London.
I don't buy the nitrogen tire inflation as a benefit. Maybe in racecar or airplane tires but not for normal driving. How much energy does it take to separate the nitrogen from the air?
nitrogen is crap. It's a marketing ploy to sell you air. Normal air is already over 78% nitrogen.
About Nitrogen tire inflation: I actually think it's counter-productive for longer trips, when you consider that as tires heat up with use, they expand. Nitrogen doesn't, so you are effectively running at a lower tire pressure. This is irrelevant for people who primarily drive short distances, such that their tires never really heat up. I recently got new tires, and the tire place filled them with Nitrogen, and I noticed this effect after about 45 minutes of highway driving. It does appear to leak more slowly than air, but for me, that doesn't particularly matter.
Some more tips that never seem to get mentioned in these articles:
Get a new o2 sensor (you can install it yourself if you're handy, I did mine today!). If you've got 100k miles and still have your original sensor, its time for a change.
It will keep your mileage up, your emissions down. Replacing worn parts is a great way to keep your car running long and CLEAN. Catalytic converters, mufflers, spark plugs...
And get a K&N reusable air filter. Far better protection, performance, and you won't be tossing a paper filter every time it gets dirty.
Synthetic Oil change...
And clean your throttle while you are at it!
OK, I could go on forever. Truth is, I am doing all these things and more to my car, trying to raise the mileage. It just doesn't make sense for me to buy a new car, so I'm going to make this one run as clean as possible.