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As the price of gasoline creeps inexorable skyward, politicians and moguls seem increasingly stumped as to what to do about it. The most pro-active (sounding) solution floated recently is the summer-long Clinton-McCain gas tax holiday, at best a controversial idea. Less talked about are the low-tech solutions echoed by ecogeeks and envirowonks, which sound practically Depression-era in their approach compared to election-year bandaid solutions. They may sound so simple they’re stupid, but it’s hard to argue with the numbers.
Skip the French Fries
Unless you’re driving a biodiesel vehicle, you don’t want fries with that — in fact, the super-sizing of Americans’ waistlines since 1960 has cost the nation a fortune in gas money. A new study from the University of Illinois found that Americans weigh an average of 24 lbs more per person than they did in the 60s, and a heavier ride needs more gas to push it around. The extra gas required, multiplied by the three trillion miles Americans drive every year, equals about one billion gallons of gas expended since 1960.
Slow Down!
Truckers are leading the way on this one — according to US News, some trucking companies are cranking back their fleets’ speed limiters in response to $4/gallon diesel. The results are impressive: by setting the maximum speed of their trucks at 62mph versus 65mph, Con-Way Freight, one of the nation’s largest trucking firms with 8,500 rigs, estimates it will save more than three million gallons of gas per year. Don’t expect a national 65mph speed limit anytime soon, though — after all, it was Congress who repealed the 70s-era 55mph speed limit, designed to reduce fuel consumption during that generation’s gas crisis.
Quit Buying So Much of It
As the price of gasoline skyrockets, the laws of supply and demand come sharply into play — eventually demand drops, just as it did in 2007. In response to pain at the pump, Americans actually drove ten billion fewer miles in 2007 than they did in 2006, at a savings of about 500 million gallons of gas. As prices climb further, expect to see savings climb, as well.
Bring a Friend
Carpooling is up the last few years, but it hasn’t exactly caught on like wildfire. According to a study from Edison, SoCal’s power utility, if every one-passenger car trip became a two-person carpool, we’d save eight billion gallons (and $24-ish billion) per year. So start making friends, people.
Of course, there are high-tech ways to ease the gas crunch too, like building more intelligent traffic lights, developing alternative fuels and increasing vehicle gas mileage standards. But those things require politicians and initiatives and money and bureaucrats; on the other hand, you can driver slow and carpool with little fear of a filibuster.
Comments (24)
Comment
Uh, no. Quit buying so much? Gasoline purchasing is pretty inelastic, not really subject to traditional laws of supply and demand. Tell all the folks in China and India to stop buying cars.
Try riding a bike.
posted by fixedgear on 5-13-2008 at 10:29 am
When I found out my wife was pregnant I started carpooling to save money. At first I thought it was a desperate act I would put up with to save some green, now I love it! Yeah, my hours are a tad bit flexible (but on the other hand, I have more incentive to be on time, and I rarely walk in late), I have made some great friends in the process, and on the days when I don’t drive I am so much more refreshed when I walk in from not having to fight traffic.
Give carpooling a shot for a week, you will not want to give it up!
posted by Witty Nickname on 5-13-2008 at 10:42 am
How about we stop driving cars to places we can walk to without kicking up a sweat.
posted by Witera33it on 5-13-2008 at 10:50 am
What about making roads more suitable for bike commuting? This recent upswing of gas prices has made me start to bike the 5 miles to work instead of drive them. I must admit I sometimes fear for my life though. Always someone in a hummer wanting all of the lane plus half the other lane.
posted by danielle on 5-13-2008 at 10:56 am
I know this one involves some beauracracy, but how about some public transporation? If I could take the bus or train to work every morning instead of driving the 35 miles, I would be a very happy girl! Not only could I get something accomplished in that time (besides listening to my daily dose of NPR), but I wouldn’t have to worry so much about how sleepy I sometimes am during my drive.
posted by Fruppi on 5-13-2008 at 11:03 am
Oops, make that 35 minutes, not miles.
posted by Fruppi on 5-13-2008 at 11:05 am
I take a train to work into downtown Toronto…approx 35 minutes commute. I’ve been lucky (knock on wood) to not have experienced any major issues with being train delays going to work. I love it! I am finally catching up on all my reading! If you live in a area with public transportation I definitely recommend giving it a shot. I love not having to battle with the other commuters in the morning and then leaving the city at the end of the day.
posted by Jordan on 5-13-2008 at 11:33 am
Try walking-in instead of going through the Drive-Thru. You will save gas by not idling in line plus the added benefit of working off some of that cheeseburger.
posted by Dustin on 5-13-2008 at 12:00 pm
In my town, it would actually be more expensive for me to take public transportation to work than to drive. It’s a 4 mile round trip (unfortunately not suitable for biking or I would do that). A monthly bus pass would cost $0.85 a day; it’s currently not costing me that much to put gas in my car to drive. At current prices, it costs $40 to fill up my 11-gallon, fuel-efficient compact hatchback. Right now, it’s only costing my $.53 to drive to work. Gas prices would have to go up to about $5.80 before it would become cost-efficient for me to take the bus. And because I live in a non-public transportation friendly town, I would still need my car for pretty much everywhere else I go, so no cost savings there.
posted by Lindsey on 5-13-2008 at 12:04 pm
Oh, I should mention some other ways to increase fuel-efficiency. Along with slowing down, don’t accelerate so fast out of a dead stop and try not to come to a hard stop (not always possible). Fill up in the mornings or later in the evening when it’s cooler — A gallon of gas actually has different volumes at different temperature.
posted by Lindsey on 5-13-2008 at 12:07 pm
I take the train everyday to Philadelphia, and SEPTA (the local public transportation system) recently launched a campaign portraying the system as “green”-i.e, SEPTA riders save x gallons of gas a year, spend less on gas than those who drive to work, etc. People pity me because of the hour drive, but personally, I love it-I either read, or even better, take a nap!
Unfortunately, my fiance has to drive about an hour to work everyday because public transportation won’t get him there…..
posted by Kate on 5-13-2008 at 1:22 pm
Whoops, I meant hour train ride….
posted by Kate on 5-13-2008 at 1:25 pm
I think there would be much less of a gas problem if the United States would just adopt a better public transportation system. Earlier this year, I went to Berlin and their public transit system was so amazing, you didn’t need a car to go anywhere. And everything was there when it was supposed to be.
In my experience, the only transit system is the bus, and it’s rarely on time and its maps (or lack thereof) are extremely difficult to figure out. I would definately ride the bus more if I could figure out their cryptic map system.
posted by Jenny on 5-13-2008 at 1:47 pm
It’s fun in suburbia, too, when the town’s big enough that you have to drive to get anywhere, but small enough that a transit system wouldn’t be cost-effective. My college town was smaller and poorer than my home town, and it had a bus system - but the only thing that kept it from being a massive money drain was the college campus and the significant low-income population. A lot of towns have neither, which I think is something a lot of the public transport people forget.
posted by Joanna on 5-13-2008 at 3:19 pm
@Lindsey -
To the contrary; accelerating faster actually saves fuel. Accelerating twice as fast does not use twice as much fuel, and your vehicle shifts into the optimal gear more quickly. Try it sometime if your vehicle has an average fuel economy display.
posted by Rob on 5-13-2008 at 3:38 pm
Of course, we could alleviate the problem with truckers by simply using trains. Think about it. How many truckloads of junk could you fit on a train? My guess is an awful lot. And how many truckers are needed to move all that junk normally? Quite a few. How many people would be needed to work the train moving all that junk? Quite a few less.
posted by Pointy-Hatted Geek on 5-13-2008 at 7:36 pm
Lindsey: Do the calculations for your daily commute include costs for insurance and vehicle repair & replacement? If not, you might want to have another look at your ROI.
I live about 6 miles from where I work; easily within biking range, but hate riding to work then smelling like sweat the rest of the day (no shower facilities at work.) So I added an electric hub motor and batteries to my bike. Now riding the bike is like riding downhill the whole way and it uses only a few pennies worth of electricity to get me there.
Oh, and my knees are happier too.
posted by Dave on 5-13-2008 at 10:03 pm
these are all great ideas, however, they are at best shortsighted…we need to think of the big picture and start making considerable efforts NOW to decrease our dependency on foreign oil..if we started to make major changes 30 years ago during the last crisis, we would probably not be in this situation now..why haven’t we been able to develop a more fuel efficient car in the last 30 years?? a better public transportation system? more energy efficient appliances, homes, etc?…because all these thing require REAL effort and a countrywide/global social awareness change..we NEED to check our insecureties at the door, stop worring about what our neighbors will think becuse we bought a small fuel efficient car, take the bus, walk to work, carpool, etc and start concentrating our efforts for the long term..if we start to do that, maybe in 30 years, we won’t be in this situation again..
posted by ziggy on 5-14-2008 at 8:10 am
Or we could adopt the European model and live near our place of work. I don’t think folks in Copenhagen worry too much that their neighbors think they are wierd for riding a bike everywhere. Only in the US is a bike a kid’s toy, a mark of poverty or the last resort when your license is suspsnded for DUI.
Maybe if we didn’t live 45 miles from where we work we wouldn’t cry about spending an hour in the car each way.
Oh, I forgot, we’re making a better life for our kids. Meanwhile, they need to be chauferred from swim meet to piano lesson to soccer practice because it’s dangerious for kids to ride bikes in suburbia. If they don’t get run over by another soccer mom in a huge fucking ugly SUV they might get snatched, because, hey, don’t you watch the news, it’s a dangerous world out there. I hope gas goes to ten bucks a galon, it’s the only way we’re gonna wake up.
/rant off
posted by fixedgear on 5-14-2008 at 1:55 pm
To Rob:
I disagree. My friends say I drive like an old lady because I accelerate slowly and brake lightly, take advantage of hills, and don’t worry if the guy in the SUV behind be is pissed because I drive the speed limit. My spousal unit is quite the opposite.
I was raised in a time (60s) when there was something called the MobileGas economy run - where large gas-guzzling cars achieved rather phenomenal mileage. I took those messages to heart.
When I drive our V6-powered ‘06 Tundra I get 19 MPG combined city/highway. When she drives it she gets 15. Those 4 MPG can save a lot of cash.
I laugh a lot when some clown blasts away from a traffic light, then sees me next to him/her at the next light. Does it matter to me that he/she got there first? Not a bit.
Where I live, the traffic light system gets stupid whenever it rains - the computer that “runs” the system is old, antiquated, and prone to failure at the least provocation. Ghods know how much the city would save if they’d upgrade the system, but they’re more interested in promoting downtown festivals (with inadequate parking and no public trans) and attracting the elderly to come live in beautiful South Carolina with their Caddies and Lincolns and duallie diesels to pull their horse trailers. There are no busses. There is no light rail. The only public trans are taxis.
We are dependent on oil, whether foreign or domestic. We have been in this condition for over a hundred years.
I like the convenience of being able to go where I want, when I want. But I combine trips. I don’t run to the store (10 miles) when I’m low on milk - I wait ’till I can do a complete grocery run. If more people were to do this we would cut our petroleum consumption by a substantial percentage.
posted by Doc on 5-14-2008 at 1:58 pm
Supply and demand doesn’t really apply to fuel…check this out from snopes
snopes.com/politics/gasoline/eggs.asp
posted by Kevin H on 5-15-2008 at 10:35 am
Public transportation is not always an option. I comute 80 miles a day but even if I took the train into the city where I work (I live outside the metropolitan area) my office is not even near the train station, it’s probably 5 miles away.
Perhaps if everyone stopped buying SUVs that get less than 20 miles per gallon it would help a little. If nothing else it might help the envrionment.
posted by G on 5-15-2008 at 3:11 pm
I couldn’t get to the weight study. Did they take into account that people are taller, and just plain bigger, than they were in the 60’s? In the mid 60’s the average height for a male high school senior was probably about 5ft. 9(or10)in. I recently met a recent HS grad who complained that he’s too short because he was one of the shortest guys in his class. He’s “only” 6 feet tall.
posted by Tdave on 5-16-2008 at 3:45 am
Conway the Trucking company mentioned in the article, won’t save any gasoline by dropping fleet speeds from 65 to 62 miles an hour. In fact they wouldn’t save so much as a drop if they stopped completely.
Conway’s Trucks burn diesel fuel.
posted by Bruno, observer of the Obvious on 6-3-2008 at 10:38 pm