5 ways to use less gasoline
BY Ken Edelstein • October 10, 2009
This is the first of five articles ways to combat climate change in Atlanta.
If you average out the numbers just for every motorized vehicle on Atlanta’s roads, around 13,000 pounds of carbon is emitted for each man, woman and child in the metro area.
That’s a heck of lot more than people in most other cities produce on from cars. New York area residents, for example, drive about half the distance per year that Atlantans do.
They’re not any better than us. It’s just that getting out of the car is more difficult for most Atlantans than it is for New Yorkers. Politicians around here (and let’s face it: voters) haven’t seen fit to support much in the way of alternatives to the automobile. And metro Atlanta’s sprawl makes it difficult for most folks to simply ditch the car in favor of walking or bicycling.
On the other hand, it’s pretty easy for most of us to cut down on our fuel use if we think of it as a step-by-step project. So here are My Green ATL’s Five Levels of Gasoline Saving Nirvana:
1. Operate your car efficiently. You actually can save a lot of fuel through such seemingly minor changes as easing up on the accelerator. Three simple maintenance steps — regular tune-ups, properly inflating tires and using the right grade of motor oil — can improve your gas mileage by up to 9 percent, according the U.S. Department of Energy. And three good driving habits — driving less aggressively, observing speed limits and taking excess weight out of your trunk — can save another 13-58 percent.
2. Drive less. There are two broad areas where you reduce your driving: on your own time, and when it comes to getting to and from work.
On your own: Use your car only when you really have to. In other words, plan ahead and get all your groceries on one trip, rather than cranking up the SUV and heading down to the store for just a bottle of milk. And, of course, take Marta to the airport; it’s fast and you don’t have to pay for parking.
The bigger opportunity for carbon savings for most Atlantans is likely to come from changing your commuting habits. Metro Atlanta happens to have a very effective organization — the Clean Air Campaign — that links commuters to ways to get to work without using their cars. The solutions can range from telecommuting to carpooling to using transit. Certainly, you can figure out how to do all that stuff on your own; but the Clean Air Campaign can make it a lot easier by, for example, helping you to network with other commuters and by hooking your employer up with ways to make transit more affordable.
You can even sign up, through the Clean Air Campaign, for the Guaranteed Ride Home program, run by a separate organization called RideSmart, which ensures that you’ll have a way home even if you miss your bus.
3) Get a more efficient automobile. A lot of people wondered how last summer’s Cash for Clunkers program could possibly have been good for the environment. Here’s the thing: It was.
That’s right. Add together all the energy used to manufacture the cars that were being junked as part of the trade-in program, and it’s not nearly as much as the energy that was saved by getting those clunkers off the road and replacing them with new cars that get better mileage. That may give you an idea for how much of a difference a more efficient car can make when it comes to carbon output.
Smaller vehicles generally cost less and hold their resale value better than behemoths, whether they’re sedans, SUVs or pickup trucks. Of 10 models listed recently by Cars.com as having the “Best Overall Car Resale Values,” for example, eight were subcompacts or compacts.
You don’t have to get a tiny vehicle to get good fuel mileage. On the other hand, don’t fool yourself into thinking that those hybrid SUVs and hybrid sports cars on the showroom floor are all green mobiles. Sometimes, the hybrid label can just be translated into “same mileage, more horsepower.” The Cadillac Escalade hybrid has plenty of power, for example, but it gets only around 20 miles per gallon.
There are plenty of reasonable alternatives. Believe it or not, small electric vehicles are now becoming practical, particularly for intown commuters. Scooters are a very fuel-efficient alternative – although they’re a little bit like a gun: Don’t own one if you don’t take a safety course on them.
But hybrid sedans are still the most economical way to get fuel efficiency. For one thing, you’ll receive up to a $7,500 tax credit from the federal government. For another, they get good mileage. Might we suggest, say, a Honda Civic Hybrid (city 40 mpg/highway 45 mpg), or of course the Toyota Prius (48/45)?
4. Arrange your life so that you use the car less often
Atlanta’s decentralized employment centers can make this difficult. If your job’s in Norcross, maybe it makes sense to live in Duluth. On the other hand, that’ll make it more difficult to park the car over the weekend. But even if you live in the ’burbs, you don’t have miss out on Marta’s ability. Suburban commuter lines drop riders off at Marta stations. The best way to find out more about all the transit options in the metro area is to go to the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority.
5. Ditch the car!
This is the first installment of our “5 ways to combat climate change” series. The next four ways to combat climate change will be published Oct. 12, Oct. 13, Oct. 14 and Oct. 15. Meanwhile, do you have a comment? A tip of your own? Something you disagree about? Then, how about making this article more informative by leaving a comment.
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