What About Driving? by Carol Monson & Mary Stucky
Luke 12: 48
“….From everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required; and from the one to whom much has been entrusted, even more will be demanded.”
God has blessed us with riches not matched in other nations….we are required to be good stewards of God’s wonderful creation….
Why should we be interested in our own driving?
From Green America: Transportation accounts for 29% of greenhouse gas emissions in the USA. In 2024, the EPA warned that passenger vehicles account for ca.16.4% of those emissions. Per Union of Concerned Scientists: if you are like the average American, driving accounts for one-quarter of your total carbon emissions. According to one 2006 study, the United States with less than 5% of the world’s population, is responsible for about 45% of the automotive carbon dioxide emissions. China does lead the world in greenhouse gas emissions by 11.4 billion metric tons yearly, to the USA’s 5.1 billion metric tons. But we can, and should, contribute to the overall decrease in CO2 emissions! James J. McCarthy, from the Union of Concerned Scientists, states “individuals cannot solve the problems of a warming planet on their own. And yet it is also true that we can never hope to have success without changing our individual behavior to reduce our emissions of greenhouse gases.
The following suggestions about driving tips come from the book Cooler Smarter from the Union of concerned Scientists (UCS). The book came out in 2012 so some of the data may have changed but the suggestions on driving are still helpful.
If you are serious about reducing your carbon emissions, the vehicle you drive, and your driving habits are great places to start. Changes to lower our transportation emissions can save money, some will even improve our health, and none are especially hard.
Buy a fuel-efficient car
You can go to www.fuel economy.gov. From the standpoint of carbon emissions, your best bet is to avoid a pickup truck unless your livelihood depends on it. Driving a GMC Yukon equals 12 tons CO2 (based on driving 12,000 miles per year). Driving a Toyota Prius or another fuel-efficient hybrid equals 3 tons CO2 per year. Electric vehicles emit 3,932 pounds of emissions in an average year. But this number can be reduced by charging the vehicle with green electricity. The good news is that used electric vehicles are going for reasonable prices!
Think before you drive
No matter what kind of car you own, the smartest way you can drive down your emissions is by driving less. Unless we reverse the increase in miles driven, we will threaten the gains we might achieve from improved efficiency. Take the trip to the store or post office on your way home from work. For a family, try to share one car instead of two. Mary and Rod are driving one car, and though it requires coordination, the results are lower gas emissions and lower car insurance bills!! Try not owning a car…. use a car-sharing service. Other options are carpooling, biking, or walking.
Drive smarter
On the highway especially, stressed out driving such as repeated braking followed by sudden acceleration can lower a car’s gas mileage by as much as 30% according to the EPA. Driving too fast can also cause your car to guzzle gas. From Transportation Energy Data Book (published by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory of the Department of Energy), we learn that driving 75 miles per hour reduces your car’s fuel economy by more than 20 percent compared with driving at 60 miles per hour.
Don’t idle - According to one estimate voluntary idling adds up to more than 100 million tons of carbon emissions in the United States annually. (This always drives me crazy - crazier than I am already). I walk past cars all the time which are idling. It seems like stopping this could be one of the easier things we could do.
Letting an engine idle for more than a minute burns more fuel than turning off the engine and restarting it.
Six steps to smarter driving
Keep your vehicle well-tuned up.
Check your tires regularly. Also, when it is time to replace your tires, consider getting a set of low-rolling resistance (LRR) tires. They can improve gas mileage for most passenger vehicles by 1 to 2 percent. Check the specs, though, to be sure they are good on wet or slippery surfaces!
Speed up and slow down gradually. When coming to a stop take your foot off the gas early so you are slowing down even before you hit the brakes.
Remove the empty roof rack. Also take bike racks off, when not in use. According to the EPA a roof rack can decrease a car’s fuel economy by as much as 5%.
Be weight conscious. Take unnecessary items from the trunk or back seat. For every 100lbs of extra weight, fuel economy decreases 1 to 2 percent.
Again, DON’T IDLE!
Another idea: Open the windows or turn on the A/C?
A road test in a Honda Accord by Consumer Report in 2008 found that the A/C reduced gas mileage by about 3% when going 65 miles per hour, while open windows had no measurable effect on gas mileage. As a practical matter though, neither choice will make as much of a difference as the other recommendations discussed, especially in a newer car.
How to reduce Long Distance Travel
Take a vacation closer to home.
Go by bus or train. A train trip can limit as little as one-quarter the emissions of an equivalent journey alone in a large car – this is on a per-passenger basis. Going by bus is among the least carbon intensive ways of traveling.
The only other option for longer trips, which beats taking an intercity bus, is driving a Prius with a total of four people in the car.
The worst ways to travel, in terms of emissions per passenger mile, are driving alone or with one other person in a typical SUV. (Flying is another subject!).
There should not be any questions about climate change anymore. The proof is before our own eyes – floods, record breaking heat, more violent storms. But there are so many things we can do to decrease our greenhouse emissions. So, what is motivating you? Mary and I would sure like to know. For me, I am trying to do everything possible to decrease my carbon footprint. I am doing it for myself, but also for your children and grandchildren, my niece, and great niece: I am doing it for people who have done very little to contribute to the problem. I do it for all the other creatures in the world. One of the things we can all do is how we drive and travel. I have pledged not to go on trips or fly anymore. I have significantly decreased how much I drive locally. I only need to get my oil changed once a year. I think I drove about 1700 to 2000 miles this past year. Please let us do this all together and support each other as we do.
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