NY Times Op Ed 6/29/08
By TOM VANDERBILT
June 29, 2008
DRIVING less - fewer miles or smaller vehicles - is the rational
response to higher fuel prices. But there's something else motorists
can do: drive smarter.
What impact have high gas prices had on your life?
In Europe, where gas prices are often more than twice what they are
here, eco-driving has become mandatory in the driving curriculums in
Germany, Sweden and, most recently, Britain. Beginning drivers are
taught to avoid idling, unnecessary braking and jackrabbit starts
at traffic lights, among other lessons that can bring fuel savings to
as high as 25 percent.
Other fuel-saving tips include carefully timing one's approach to
slowing traffic or red signals and not accelerating toward a "stale
green," that is, a signal that's about to change.
As the United States has no national driving standard, establishing a
similar curriculum here would be challenging. It may be even harder
to get people to forsake the temptations of hurry-up-and-wait driving.
It would be better to provide drivers with accurate real-time fuel
consumption information - similar to the "energy monitor" on the
dashboard of a Toyota Prius. Studies show that feedback can change
energy consumption.
Another approach is to change the traffic landscape. Roundabouts,
which favor slow coasting over starting and stopping and eliminate
the need to idle at red signals when an intersection is empty, can
cut fuel use 10 percent to 30 percent.
The average speed of free-flowing traffic is also likely to drop in
response to high fuel prices, as it has already in Britain. It simply
costs more to go faster. One American trucking firm has announced
that its fleet will now travel a maximum of 60 miles per hour.
Consider also driving less aggressively. An Australian study found
that an "aggressively" driven vehicle saved a mere five minutes over
a 94-minute course compared with a "smoothly" driven vehicle - but
the smooth car used 30 percent less fuel.
There's two ways to ease the pain of higher gas prices: drive a
Prius, or drive like a Prius.
- TOM VANDERBILT, the author of the forthcoming "Traffic: Why We
Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us)"
--
Elan Shapiro
Sustainable Tompkins Community Partnership Coordinator
Sustainable Living Associates, Principal
Frog's Way B&B
211 Rachel Carson Way
Ithaca, NY 14850
607-275-0249 607-592-8402 Cell
"We must be the change we want to see in the world"
Mohandas Gandhi
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