People & Their People Movers

Feb 11

The daily commute

Phoning it in used to be taboo pre-covid, the good ol’days. But not driving to work every day in the new normal is a planet-saver.

Turns out that cars and light-duty trucks make up OVER HALF of our national transportation footprint. The average commute time in the US is ~26 minutes, meaning that people aren’t living that close to their offices but in land-sprawling suburbias. Land sprawl—something to get into later. So an hour a day (round trip) is what most of us were/are sacrificing daily.

Your car’s emissions

A typical passenger vehicle emits roughly 4.6 metric tons of CO2 per year...holy semi-truck that is a lot of emissions!
...So, how do we understand and reduce that 4.6 MT of CO2? Especially if we can’t reduce how far we have to drive to and from work every day.

That 4.6 MT is not the only impact created due to movement. There are manufacturing and purchasing decisions, and then there’s fuel economy. Don't have a total anxiety attack yet, because you have control over what car you drive, how you get around, and how often you choose a gas-powered people mover option. Let's look at ways to reduce our personal transportation footprint by fuel-efficient driving, or ‘eco-driving’ as the euros call it.

Braking and accelerating

When driving do you speed and/or rapidly accelerate and break? Have you been known to thunder gun around town? Sometimes? Only when you're late? No matter your answer, we’re not judging but there is an opportunity to save money and emissions here.
Did you know that reducing rapid acceleration and braking improves non-highway fuel economy by 3%? That's because most engines are less efficient when speed increases. Leave the pedal to the metal to Talladega and save the amount you spend per mile by 3%.

Speed management on the freeway also lowers emissions, and bonus keeps the “fuzz” away. By reducing your top speed on the freeway from 70 to 65 mph you could $ave your$elf. Did you know that reducing your highway speed by 5 miles per hour can reduce how many times you fill-up?

Idling

Don’t sit idly by. After 10 seconds, the planet starts to cry. Eco-Poetry…

Do you idle your vehicle when you are not in transit?

Live in a cold place? Modern vehicles warm-up 2x faster when done so by driving than letting it ‘warm-up’ up in idle. It’s also better for your lungs. Sitting in an idling car, waiting for it to warm up, exposes you to breathe in dirty exhaust air—gross.

How about your wallet savings and increasing the lifespan of your vehicle until the wheels fall off (metaphorically)? Idling can waste up to $650 per year depending on the vehicle—ouch!

Make it a triple win: spare the wear, your lungs, and the planet.

Waiting for somebody? Turn it off.
Drive-through taking a while? Turn it off.
Pulled over to take a selfie for the gram because the wind made your hair look mad fire? Turn it off. Gold stars all around.

Public transportation

Driving Alone? Convenience is nice, but the solo commute emits proportionally more CO2 than when you fly on a full plane. We know—that little fact is a shocker. We are not saying you should start flying to work, but this comparison shows how much one person’s actions can matter.
We're trained in convenience and time-saving. The industrial revolution mindset made the opportunity cost for time very high. That's where our priorities lie. They are not inherently bad, until they edge out circular awareness, e.g. What's the future cost of over emitting? If we collectively work towards lower emissions by making climate-smart transportation choices then we can reduce transportation emissions significantly.

Example: If you start carpooling with another person to work, you both just cut your commuting emission footprint in half. Even better, say you can carpool with three people, that is a 67% emission reduction on each one of your footprints.

Circular moment: taking the metro to work takes an extra 10 minutes, but I will be saving resources and money.

And the thing about the public transportation networks (buses, metro, planes), they need to be used by many in order to be an efficient use of fuels. Communal participation makes it work. Go figure.