How Do *You* Cut Your Gasoline Consumption?

I reduce my fossil fuel consumption by biking or walking to get around. I live in DC so it isn't hard to do. I occasionally will use a car to move into college or drop off a friend if they live far away and it is very late at night.

I also am a vegitarian, keep the thermostat around 74 in the summer and work at a renewable energy solution company. I also have a solar powered flashlight i try to use for late night reading.

Bike as much as possible.
Long distance to be covered in a hurry?
Motorcycle.
Long distance and rain or 2+ people / heavy stuff? Car.
Figure out local cool stuff to do instead of doing cool stuff really far away (easy in Brooklyn / NYC).

vsk

Thanks for the clarification on your viewpoint. I was really annoyed at the demonization of Fox news in your other post. I think Fox news could fix global warming and people on this board would still think they're evil. They were putting someone's story on the news. Let's be happy about that. Geesh. We should be encouraged by the story, that the main stream is putting it out there. The more people see it, the more acceptable this can be. My local news stations have had several stories about hypermilers (and one of the stations that had the story was indeed a local Fox affiliate).

As an environmentally conscious community, we should be encouraging every incremental step. And so what if she "bums a ride". Isn't that called ride-sharing? Two people in a car is better than one. We aren't going to get everyone to get rid of cars, so applaud each and every incremental change.

Afterall, I still own a home. Does that make me evil because I could get a smaller place or be in a multifamily dwelling that uses less energy? Should we mock everyone in a home, even if they're reducing the energy they use? We've cut our energy usage literally in half through the use of technology (more efficient HVAC and appliances, better insulation, programmable thermostat, windows, attic ventilation, etc) and I telecommute 2-3 times a week, but I still own a car. Man, am I horrible.

Seriously, I used to really like Treehugger and get a kick out of some of the "all or nothing" fanatics, but the mantra of you have to do everything possible and put the right spin on it to make this community happy is, IMO, doing way more damage to encouraging others to follow suit than any thing else. I'm seriously about to stop coming to this site anymore. It's just a bunch of holier-than-thou people that think they have the right way and everything else is evil.

I save a lot of energy turning of Fox News!

Until I went to college 4 years ago, I thought the only way to get around my hometown was to have a car. I drove everywhere and although I always felt bad about releasing more carbon emissions, I didn't really feel like there was a way to get around it. Since I've lived in Boston for the past 4 years, my perspective has changed.

I would say that I still have a ways to go to reach a truly low carbon lifestyle. I like to travel and none of my family live close by (so if I want to see my grandparents or any of my extended family, they/I have to fly to visit).

Fortunately, living in Boston lets me choose to travel via less carbon intensive modes of transport on a day-to-day basis. I either walk, cycle or take the subway to get to work or wherever I need to go. If I am traveling longer distances, I take buses or carpool with multiple people.

Living in a city has widened my perspective and helped me to understand that there's more out there than just cars. It's good to be in a place that forces you to think outside of the automobile and think more actively about how you move around a city. Now that I've graduated, I have decided to stay in the city and live in a location where I can cycle and take public transport to work. From now on, I will work as hard as I can to live close by to my job so I am never forced to drive.

If anyone has any ideas about how to live a low carbon lifestyle when friends and family are spread over the US I'd love to hear them.

Just a quick comment...

Keep in mind that by featuring this story on Fox the audience is quite different than people who are reading this blog every day.

While this story is sensationalistic (pointing a finger for sensationalism only at Fox is unfair to say the least), it did gain exposure which can only help.

and additionally:
After a quick look into the "how to go green guides", I suggest a post on the topic of "your first steps towards going green". A bathroom remodel probably is not going to be most people's first steps.

I completely agree with Justine's comment above! For the majority of my life, I have seen a car as the only viable method of transportation, but since moving to Northwestern University and gaining access to Chicago's good (though not completely amazing) network, I've discovered the two wheeled glory of a bicycle. I bought a vintage 1970s road bike and have since been using it as my primary means of transportation.

Back home in Texas, I was able to acquire a newer, lighter bike for use in commuting. My parents are incredulous when I bike distances greater than 3 miles, and have attempted to ban me from biking greater than 10 miles!

Did I mention they don't care too mcuh

I've never owned a car, but my girlfriend does. it's a Echo hatchback which is pretty much the highest mileage car in Canada except for hybrids. when we move together, we'll try to have only one car and drive as little as possible.

I completely agree with Justine's comment above! For the majority of my life, I have seen a car as the only viable method of transportation, but since moving to Northwestern University and gaining access to Chicago's good (though not completely amazing) network, I've discovered the two wheeled glory of a bicycle. I bought a vintage 1970s road bike and have since been using it as my primary means of transportation.

Back home in Texas, I was able to acquire a newer, lighter bike for use in commuting. My parents are incredulous when I bike distances greater than 3 miles, and have attempted to ban me from biking greater than 10 miles!

Did I mention they don't care too much about the environment?

"I have decided to stay in the city and live in a location where I can cycle and take public transport to work - Justine"

I think that is one of the most important things people can do. Location seems to be so essential. I have always based where I live around public transport/bike routes to the place where I work. I am tired of people who move out to the burbs or out in the countryside saying that they'd love to take public transport to their city jobs if only it wasn't so slow, limited, inconvenient etc. When they moved they made a choice that involved basing their life around a car.

she can be praised for her mindset but i wouldnt go as far as calling it a one-tank wonder.... but still it can still serve to get people talking about the subject, thats still good.

i bike commute part-way to work. Even so, ive saved ~20 gal of gas this summer so far. Better than nothing. We try to drive the truck less and the car more. At some long traffic lights(some almost 1 minute), i am turning off the vehicle while waiting. I do some mild hyper miling like: coasting, keeping speed low-ish, parking so that i dont have to back out of the space if possible.

the biggest change we made to save gas was moving closer to my husband's work, so his commute is less than 10 miles, rather than 30. this was not easy, as the area where his job is more expensive than we thought we could afford- but in these times, deals are being made, and we found one! one suggestion though: sell your old house first!

i don't typically work outside the home (self employed), but when/ if i do i make sure that it is close enough to make it worthwhile...if the sacrifice of the commute is too far, i don't take the job- or make arrangements to meet in the middle etc.

when we must go other places, we combine trips as best we can, and my husband often rides his motorcycle...usually we don't travel all that far away from home for entertainment- we enjoy our garden, go for a walk/ hike with our dogs, maybe camping, or to the beach...but basically we stay close to home most of the time...which makes it much easier to justify going for a weekend away every so often, since we hardly ever do!

anyway part of our conservation is frugality of our finances- as well as knowing we're saving gas and emissions...our long term plan is to build a super eco efficient home where we produce nearly all of our own power, and eventually to have hybrids/ plug in cars...all in good time!

the message is just do what you can for now- it does matter...and no system is perfect!

I found my carpool on RideSearch.com, there was a story just today on the AP on the various carpool matching websites out there. Conservation is KEY to saving money on gas. All of the other solutions, like offshore drilling, drilling new wells and even investing in wind and solar all require money and infrastructure to work. Right now we can save on gas. It is great idea to try to conserve as much as possible.

for vacation this summer, my husband and chose to travel by sailboat, instead of by plane or car. turns out you dont have to go far to feel far away. (we were less than 20 miles from home, but when it takes you 8+ hours to get there, you're transported.) we also brought sea kayaks for recreation and rented bikes--instead of a car or mopeds--when we went ashore. we also ditched the outboard motor for our dinghy, and rowed it instead.

i'll also be skipping burning man this year (weep!) because i have to fly cross country to get there. instead, i'm looking for a local burners' event to attend. anyone know of the most fun one in new england?

The girl on Fox is certainly doing better than me.
About 2-3 weeks ago my dad told me about her story.

I don't have a holier-than-thou attitude.
I try to keep my driving down. I pretty much just stay at home and drive to work on the 3 days a week I work. I try to get my mom to drive her car, which is more fuel efficient and is a low emissions vehicle, so we can go different places.

My mom thinks riding a bike will get me killed. I'm slowly trying to build up how far I can bike so I don't have to drive my car to go to work and school, the main places I go.
My college plans to put in bike racks and I wish they would hurry up and do it. I will ask the campus police if I can just chain my bike up somewhere because I don't feel like driving my car 4 miles. It's pretty stupid and wasteful.

I think every little bit counts and it's good she got some press BUT there are lots of others out there who do more.

C'est la vie.

I never owned my own car. The period in my life when buying a car interested me, I wasn't allowed to by my parents since I was still a minor living with them. Later I moved to places where I didn't need a car. I could get around simply by bussing, carpooling or biking. When I moved back to the Midwest, I chose a community within a city where all of my needs are meetable by bus and or by foot/bike. I walk just about everywhere and absolutely love my life in the slow lane.

I lived in Guelph, ON until very recently (while attending school there) and used the transit system there and my bike to get around the vast majority of the time (very rarely used my car - usually for trips outside of the city). After graduating I've moved back to my rural central New York hometown to live with my parents.

I have to say I really enjoyed not having to worry about being responsibly for my own travel while taking public transit and now that its not available I miss it. I try to drive as little as possible, which being unemployed is pretty easy, but when I do need to go anywhere outside of my town I can drive a Honda Insight, a motorcycle, or a natural gas Honda Civic.

My family has been working pretty hard on getting our schedules together and sharing errands so no one needs to take a trip to accomplish just one or two things.

My girlfriend and I used to be fairly gas-hungry urbanites in Columbus, Ohio. I lived very close to work, but still drove too much (almost always?) and my girlfriend was driving upwards of an hour per day...we decided we wanted a lifestyle change and packed up half of our possessions from our oversized apartment, donated the rest, sold our cars, and moved to Montreal. Since then, neither of us have been in a car for 3 months, I walk to work every day (20 minute walk each way), my girlfriend takes the Metro, and we walk or take the Metro all over the city. We've both lost weight, feel healthier and have a much more intimate connection with our new city. We call it the Montreal diet...perhaps it's a bit extreme, but it worked for us!

How do I lower my carbon footprint? I sold my truck three years ago and haven't looked back. When i changed jobs i moved to a apartment closer to work so I could still commute. Thermostat is never over 60 F in the winter and rarely over 55 F I use passive heating and cooling in my apartment as much as possible. I have a small window Air conditioner with a programmable thermostat set for 75 F that I turn on briefly at night to cool my bedroom down. I changed to all compact fluorescents 5 years ago when they were expensive and am still using some of the same bulbs i bought then. I avoid buying anything i do not need and when I do purchase something i look for items that will last and avoid buying anything cheap or disposable. I have used public transportation for all my needs even living in an area with a very weak public transport system. This has included vacations for the last couple years. It's not easy, but it is not as hard as some people make it out to be.

How do we get beyond the "I drive a Prius/fuel efficient car and have CFL lightbulbs"? These are easy economics for the consumer to make. But what about the "green" clothes and food and houses? Why don't they fly off the shelf? Partly because they don't save money, but also because the "goodness" is in the making of the product and the consumer is asked to do nothing more but buy the product. With a Prius and CFL lightbulb the consumer make the difference and not the manufacturer. Maybe we should relook at how we "sell" green to consumer? More on this at http://angryafrican.net/2008/08/13/build-it-green-and-they-will-buy/

I walk to work, and have for the last 4 years. Unfortunately my company is moving out of downtown Denver out the the Tech Center in the suburbs. I thought about moving, but that would mean leaving a walkable neighborhood (Curtis Park) and moving into an unwalkable one. Since I am about 3 blocks from the lightrail on my end, and about half a mile on the office end I will start taking the lightrail when we move.

In addition I became a vegetarian, started a homeless recycling program (I have a separate trash can for aluminum and when it is full I put the contents out by the dumpster for the homeless collectors to take) put power-strips on all of my home entertainment vampire devices and switched to CFLs throughout the house.

I also bought a small, efficient twin-tub washing machine, and put up hidden clotheslines in the house to use instead of the building's washing machines. I use the rinse water from the laundry to water the garden. In addition I picked up a Berkey filtering water dispenser so that I no longer have to drive to Wild Oats for water. The filters in it should last me about 13 years before needing to be replaced based on my current consumption (take that Brita!)

Most of things save me money as well, which is a great added bonus.

I live in Los Angeles, and I commute to work from Silverlake to the Garment District, about eight miles, using a combination of my bike and the Red Line subway. I live in a neighborhood where I can walk or ride to restaurants and stores, including two groceries. I bought a window fan instead of an air conditioner, and I shop as often as possible at the Farmers Market. I still have a car, a small sedan, which I mostly use on weekends to visit my parents in the suburbs, or when I need to haul something.
Until not too long ago, I was sitting in traffic with no regard to my environmental impact. It's been an eye opener to find how, once you get out of your car, your perspective changes. You see automobiles for what they are, a real mixed blessing with a serious downside. And bombing down a downtown street, outpacing stewing traffic, is one of life's great pleasures.

I can't say that I do too much to reduce my fossil fuel dependency. I stay home with my son and go to school online. The only time I drive anywhere is for groceries. I'm not into the random playdate-with-strangers thing and my yard and house is just fine for him to play in. We just moved out here so we haven't switched the lights over to CFLs yet (they're still in a box). The only one who drives is my husband and that's just to work and back. I think it's about 20 miles round trip. It's in a 1972 Super Beetle, but that's still hardly anything as far as average American commute goes. I use Freecycle constantly and support local agriculture. So, we're not like uber-green super heroes, but we're taking steps.

My wife and I sold our car a year ago. We use transit, bicycles and walking mostly, but supplement with taxis and zipcar for big grocery shopping trips.

We're buying our food locally grown whenever possible, and have trimmed back our meat consumption to about 3 times a week.

Our lights are all CFLs, but more importantly, they're mostly turned off. The furnace in our house is turned down to 60 (which isn't far from the temperature of summer in San Francisco.)

It's fairly easy to live this way in San Francisco, the worst part is the cold, but that's easily fixed with a sweater. Hills are bad as well, and I don't ride my bike as often as I could, taking transit instead.

We've still got to get to the point where we're not throwing as much food in compost as we do. We try not to waste things, but with a family of two we're always throwing a couple of slices of moldy bread in there. We're working hard to reduce our packaging too, shopping at Rainbow grocery with reusable containers.

When I said that the attitude FOX "news" has towards this girl's acheivement is the problem, what I really meant was that their mentality is "OMGWTFBBQ!!! How is that possible?! Can it really be true!? That's insane!"

These seem to be the questions that the people at FOX are asking themselves, and not rhetorically asking their viewers. It's like they simply could not envision a reality where they don't drive, and that buying 500 gallons of gas a month isn't normal. This is indicitive of a certain culture at FOX.

Now, back to the question at hand.

The way I live now required quite a bit of planning. We moved into a smallish townhouse 4 blocks from where we live about a year and a half ago. We had chosen this location for its short commute and proximity to rapid transit. In fact, our search for a new home started about three and a half years ago, and the criteria we used were as such:

1) It had to be less than $250K.
2) It must be near Skytrain.
3) It should be close to shopping.
4) It would be awfully nice if it were in Vancouver.

#1 pretty much excluded #4, but we looked anyway. #1 also made it very hard to shop, since so many advertisements for real estate don't mention price at all. It even often required a trip to the place in question to speak directly to a sales agent, which was a royal pain for us. Interestingly enough, real estate values in our region dictate that it's now impossible for us to afford our own home, if we were to buy it today. Things would be different though if you live in the US, where real estate values in your region probably make this goal laughably easy in comparison.

#2 Was also an absolute must. We didn't own a car then (nor do we yet either). Such a restriction means that the usual compromise - a longer commute - was not an option at all. Just as owning a car forces the hands of many TH readers into continued car ownership through suburban living and its evils, not owning a car forced our hands into owning small, but close to work and transit. We were lucky in that it wasn't quite as small as it could have been.

In the end though, this compromise has paid off in spades. The neighbourhood we found was 4 blocks from where I work, and close to all kinds of ammenities including a public swimming pool and lots of restaurants and shopping. Also, we've been able to drop daycare for our son and work on opposite shifts while not gutting our marriage, because I have the opportunity to come home for lunch and she can come to my workplace on a whim, and every night we all walk to the Skytrain station together on her way to work. "More time with family" has been one huge benefit to our arrangement.

One of the other benefits of our place though, was not only its small size (less to heat) but its energy-star rated appliances. While that wasn't a deal-breaker, it was certainly a selling point of our townhouse. Our annual electricity consumption (which *includes* our heat) is about the per-capita consumption for Canadians overall, but that's for an entire household of three, so it's actually about half to 1/3 the average (not including our share at work, so it's definitely more than 1/3). Our natural gas consumption is close to zero (the barbecue and range are the only uses), which means that our household GHG emissions are very small in comparison to most Canadians.

Like many of the other commenters, I walk/bike/carpool around town. Even though I work as a programmer, I can't telecommute, sadly.

The biggest way that I have cut back, though, was by planning in advance to reduce my needs. When I moved to Austin, I deliberately chose my living arrangements based on proximity to services and my workplace. Even if I drove to and from work every day, I'd still be able to go six or seven weeks between visits to the gas station.

It's laudable to cut back whenever possible, but I urge people to reduce their consumption *potential* up front in addition to reducing their active consumption.

I lived in the urban suburbs of New York City - IE, New Jersey, and work in Hoboken, across the Hudson from NYC. I had to sit in daily traffic jams everywhere I went as cars are the only transit option. Ah, North Jersey. My girlfriend's commute to NYC consisted of driving to a train station and transferring three times.

My solution was to move closer to the city to an apartment half the size of my last one, with modern windows, my own thermostat, etc. We got recycling cans for our building. I bought an old bike for $50 which is my ride to work. The bus to NYC stops one block from my home. The light rail and ferry are not too much farther.
We sold off the old Honda station wagon, but kept the diesel VW bug (40+ mpg!) I'm still trying to find biodiesel around here to no avail, but the car stays parked often enough.
I go to the farmers market for produce when possible. I wear the same old clothes until they're falling apart. We have under the sink water filters and Sigg bottles. I keep indoor plants for cleaning the air (and the occasional gift to friends) and grow tomatoes and herbs on our fire escape and window boxes. No cable TV. I have a lust for vintage Hi-Fi gear, thus buy lots of used things.

All these things are byproducts of our commuting discontents. What it boils down to is that we were SO unhappy wasting many hours of our week commuting, thus moved to save our sanity. In doing so we've also lowered our carbon footprint significantly.

On our recent trip to Maui we rented a biodiesel VW bug, ate local, and camped or made friends - no hotels. Although, i do feel guilty about the flight.

Our friends and family think we're a bit eccentric and often are in disbelief - "VW make diesels? It gets 40mpg? You bike to work? You rented the same car you own on Maui? What's biodiesel?" Its not about being 'holier that thou," its about doing the right thing for the right reasons for the best life for everyone... and having fun!

All in all, our life has been vastly improved by moving closer to NYC. More time for ourselves, we eat better, meet more people, have far more social interaction... i don't think its all that much more expensive. More for rent, less for travel/entertainment/socializing.

As i said, we saved our sanity.

Walk. Walk. Walk. If I have to drive I check the air in my tires. We recently wrote a post on this subject: http://gogreentravelgreen.com/green-transportation/the-extreme-hypermiling-guide-450-tips-to-increase-your-miles-per-gallon-and-save-gas/

My girlfriend and I moved to Los Angeles from Michigan a year ago and while we aren't thrilled about living in a semi-arid desert and all that it entails we've been able to significantly reduce our footprint.

Previously, we lived near the center of our small town and could walk a lot, but I had a 20 minute freeway drive to work every day. We also were forced to run the air conditioner for several weeks out of the year and the heat throughout the Michigan winter.

In LA we've sacrificed living in a nicer, cheaper neighborhood for an expensive, loud one so we could both walk to work. We also live near a downtown-type area and can walk to restaurants, businesses, Whole Foods, a farmers market, etc. We only use the car on weekends and take the bus if it's feasible. The car only get about 25mpg but we drive it so little it doesn't make sense to get a better one.

Our other efforts include cutting down a lot on meat, using CFLs, watching power consumption, experimenting with short/shared/navy showers, etc. The best part about living here is that we were able to go an entire year without running the A/C or heat! The savings help to offset the 100% wind power we buy (at $.14/kwh). ouch

I'll second Bee by saying that living closer to work goes a long way toward saving one's sanity!

I can't say I've reduced my fuel consumption when I never really used much in my personal life. Since 1980 my 'game' has been to see how little fossil fuel I can use day-to-day. Living in North America /Australia I accept that not having a car will completely isolate me. My wife & I usually own a car but only use it for vacations more than 100 km away. We've driven about 25,000 km since 2000 (10,000 for one city change). We've done 50,000 km of bicycle touring in the same time but flying home uses our annual CO2 allocation...
With several bicycles, an electric scooter and a motorcycle it is a rare day we ever need to drive - and the bus is too slow compared to a bike. Our first year in Darwin we used 65 l of fuel. On the other hand I'm a pilot & I burn 1000 l a day at work. A 6 week driving vacation through the Colorado Plateau used 1500 l, which I still think is outrageous but I can't see how to do a trip like that by public transit - and we would probably have missed being alone at sunrise at the north rim of the Grand Canyon vs the 10 million or so people there off-season at South Rim.
It's the 1 trans-pacific Flight every 3 years that really sucks fuel.
So I hardly use any fuel compared to my Neighbours but I'm a prodigious fuel sucking hog compared to the rest of the world's residents.

Well, first i changed all of my families 30 lightbulbs. Since I live in Sweden, IKEA sells them 10-pack style for 90 SEK (about 13 USD).
Second, I decided to buy an EU moped and use Ethanol to drive with it (to lower the carbon footprint by at least 30% more - we swedes now suddenly have loads of these ethanol punps everywhere and they grow like fungus).

So - I have traveled 150 km this summer with it, it takes me where I want to go 50 t o 60 km/h (the ethanol gave me a 5 km/h increase in speed). It uses 0.18 L of gasoline, which gives me an 62 MPG+ if I calculated it correctly. I still have to use 25% gasoline, but a funny new feature grew from using 75% ethanol: I got a free start/stop feature. At every traffic light my engine dies. But with my electric start - it only takes a half second to get started. So with that new free feature I save even more :) Full tank with ehanol is also 25% cheaper than filling it with gasoline, included that it sucks 25% more fuel. So - I feel quite nice using the bike this summer :) The only feature I miss would be that during rainy days it would have a small roof (like the BMW bikes) so I still would feel comfortable using the bike those days.

I have been bicycle commuting for the past 6 years. I also try to avoid using the car whenever possible. This is not always easy or convenient when you live 850 feet above town but as my grandmother always said it builds character and I think that my kids will agree that I am certainly not lacking in character.

A tank for a summer, I only used 1/2 tank (5 gallons over 3 months)

When I bought my first 1 bedroom home a year ago I made sure it was within biking distance (11 miles one way) and close to the bike path. So, now I can bike to work and grad school everyday.

I avoid driving a lot (campbell, ca) because I can walk down town to go out to eat or shop at the farmers market. I nearly quit gas burning hobbies like motorcycling too.

Its not like I dont drive. When I can I carpool and when I drive I drive a Honda insight (70 MPG), so I have really driven 350 miles on only 5 gallons.

Trip link, hyper mile, telle commute, yada yada, tree hugger this, tree hugger that.....

I live in DC and although I don't take public transportation I have found other ways to cut down on gas consumption. I work from home (I previously worked as a Realtor - talk about burning up gas!!) and when my son and I go for outings I write down everywhere I need to go and map out the most direct route to hit all my stops; I also leave out during non-peak times so as to avoid traffic.

I'm new to this site and haven't posted before. I have a Nissan X-Terra which gets 23m.p.g on a good day. I also have a motorcycle (yamaha 1100cc cruiser) which gets 47 m.p.g. The car stays in the driveway thesedays and I almost exclusively use the 'bike. I enjoy riding and so it's a win/win situation.

My fiance and I are taking steps, though they may not seem many. Over a year ago, he moved in with me and started avoiding the 5 day 45 minute one way commute to college. Though his car is quite fuel efficient, the savings are astounding. Not only that, he works for our university's library, and where we live, all he has to do is walk across the street to campus for work.

We both have cars, but we only use one at a