Carbon Fast For Lent

I am hoping to inspire others to move past giving up chocolate or camel rides for Lent, and to ascend toward something more useful - giving up carbon. We are truly addicted, as the following posts will prove. All content is subject to copyright - Leslie Holly, 2009

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Location: Upstate NY, United States

Trying to do my part to voice ideas and solutions to problems we can all solve if we try

Friday, January 23, 2009

Reduce Your Gasoline Use by 10%

Americans are addicted to their gas. Period. We drive an average of 12,000 miles per year, which is nearly 33 miles per day. With 240 million cars on the road, that’s a lot of gas. So how can we improve mileage? We all know the drill: Keep your tires properly inflated, get your car tuned up, get a clean air filter, empty the trunk of extra weight, get rid of the roof rack when you’re not using it. But there are other things you can do that may take just a little practice, but are simple, saving you TIME and gas.

Combine your errands. I know one person who must leave the house at least 5 times per day, every day. But if all of those trips were combined into 1, the savings would be at least 20% for gas and who knows for time. The act of combining your errands into a single outing will save you an average of 5%.

Make right turns only. UPS began this practice back in 2004, saving them 3.1 million gallons of fuel each year. It saves them time, fuel and insurance due to far fewer accidents. The saying goes – 10,000 sailors can’t be wrong. What about 80,000 UPS vehicles?

Don’t warm your car up. If the temperature is below freezing, the engine needs only about 1 minute running time prior to driving. If the temperature is above freezing, the engine needs no time to warm up. Oil has changed substantially since the early days of automotives. There is no need to warm it up and re-lubricate the inner workings of your engine.

Review hyper-miling. Visit Hyper-Miling on ways to increase your car’s mileage. Don’t drive like speed racer, and other simple, but effective ways to be nicer to your car and your gas bill.

Don’t drive 1 day a week. Ask your boss if you can work from home 1 day per week. Or, don’t travel any on a weekend day. Either of these choices will cause you to plan your week differently, but you might actually find it very enjoyable.

Use the car with the better mileage for the longer trips. In-town driving is a great equalizer of autos. But the highway miles can really show the hog from the miser. So if you have one commute that is long and another that is short, use the miser for the longer commute. It will save you incredible sums.

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