Image by ^riza^ 

Now that we are going to be heading into the holidays, I figured I’d give you a few tricks and treats you can use to make the most out of your vehicle’s gasoline consumption.  These tips can be used anytime actually whether gasoline prices are up or down or whether you are driving to work or heading out for that holiday vacation.  Just keep them in mind as they can help you lower your emissions, speed up your travel and of course put more of your money back in your wallet.

1. If you have a vehicle that uses alternative fuels, take the time before you leave to find out where the alternative fueling stations can be found.  It will save you time and speed up your arrival time if you know exactly where you can/can’t stop along the way.  GreenCar.com has a great tool that shows you all kinds of alternative fuel filling stations within a 1-10 mile radius of the location you enter. 

2. Know before you go.  Entering your destination on your GPS or mapping your route via a service like Mapquest will help you save time and fuel.  Studies have even shown that use of a GPS can reduce emissions by up to 21%.  Mapquest also has a cool gas price programwhere you can see what the price of gas (or diesel or alternative fuel) is along your route and/or at your destination.  This way you know whether its smarter to fill up now or just put in 1/2 a tank as there is cheaper fuel further along.  This is particularly valuable when going on long trips as we all have probably experienced filling up and then seeing a sign for cheaper fuel only 5 miles down the highway.

3. Get your vehicle fully tuned up regularly.  Changing your vehicles’ fluids, rotating your tires and/or checking to ensure they have the correct air pressure in them, getting your brakes checked, etc are all regular maintenance activities that when done properly will help keep your vehicle running properly.  A proven fuel additive will also help reduce build-up in your engine and provide a more complete burn, thus helping fuel efficiency.  Keeping your vehicle running well improves gasoline consumption and lessens harmful exhaust.

4. Empty your vehicle of all unneeded items.  A heavy, loaded-down vehicle tends to use more gas to get where you need to go.  On trips, I know this isn’t necessarily an easy thing to do as you are usually packed full for your trip.  One simple tip to lessen the weight of your vehicle is to only fill up half-way.  It will mean stopping more for gas, but may get you better mileage.  However in your regular week to week, day to day commutes, keeping your vehicle cleaned out is definitely a smart move.

5. Car-pool or take public transportation whenever you can.  Not only does car-pooling help save gasoline, but if your car-pool members each take turns driving their vehicle at least once a week then you save big on maintenance costs as well.  Driving as part of a car-pool or taking public transportation whenever you can is one of the simplest tricks for saving gas. 

6. Drive smart.  Aggressive drivers who rapidly accelerate or brake while driving are wasting gas.  Did you know that driving that way can actually lower your gas mileage by up to 33%?   There is no reason to rapidly accelerate only to have to slam on your brakes a little further ahead.  Just be smart when driving.  It will not only give you better gas mileage, it is also safer for you and those around you. 

These are simple tricks but some of the treats are better mileage, less harmful emissions, less gasoline used and more money saved.  Even for those who drive a hybrid or electric vehicle, many of the tricks I mentioned can be used by you as well. 

Image by biofriendly 

Even with the large volume of hybrids and electric vehicles being driven around the U.S. every day, there are still millions and millions of  hydrocarbon-based gasoline and diesel vehicles adding to our poor air quality.  For example, these types of vehicles are reportedly responsible for about 60% of the air pollution in most major cities.

What causes these vehicles to create harmful emissions and polluting exhaust?  It’s all in the combustion.  The incomplete combustion of these fuels can cause the hydrocarbons to react with nitrogen oxides (often produced from high temperatures and oxygen in excess of the amount needed to burn the fuel).  Then when the resultant gases hit the sunlight, they form ground-level ozone aka smog.

Now the volume of hydrocarbon-based fuels being used along with the efficiency, or inefficiency, of the cars’ engines will determine the amount of ground-level ozone/smog being produced.   If you have ever been in a congested city you know how heavy the air can seem.  That’s mostly ozone.  Ozone is a very potent irritant and can not only cause eye or throat irritations, but potentially serious lung damage or respiratory trouble.

So what can be done?  Everyone could go and trade their existing vehicles in for electric or hybrid vehicles, but that’s probably not a very workable solution.  Besides where would all the old vehicles go?  We already know they are having trouble disposing of the “Cash for Clunkers” vehicles. 

A simple solution is to improve the combustion of hydrocarbon-based gasoline and diesel fuels.   How do you do that?  Well, a few factors are key: First you should ensure you keep your engine clean and tune up your car regularly.  Built-up and unburned fuel can clog your engine and hinder future combustion.  Second you should use a proven fuel additive that will help un-bundle the hydrocarbon molecules, allowing oxygen easier access and thus producing a more complete burn.

I know this isn’t the end-all solution, but steps like this are something each person and/or company can do in order to ensure the vehicle(s) they are driving burn the hydrocarbons more completely.  Doing so will lower the volume of harmful emissions being produced and clean up the air we breathe.         

Image from Freiker.org 

Now that most schools are back in session (or will be next week), parents are having to deal with dropping their kids off at school before they head to work.  Not only does this add more time to your morning routine, but you end up using more gasoline and often add frustration to the start of your day, etc.  The solution?  Have your kid become a Freiker!

What’s a Freiker? Freiker stands for FREquent bIKER.  Basically it is a kid who instead of being driven to school, they take their bike or even walk.  The Freiker Program was started about 5 years ago by a dad, who after unsuccessfully trying to convince his kids to ride their bikes to school (less than a mile from their home), decided to offer them small prizes if they would take their bikes.  The kids enjoyed it so much, he figured it would be a great thing for other kids to do and the program has been growing ever since. 

In Feb 2009, Freiker reached a milestone by having over 100,000 ”kid-powered rides” logged.  They calculated that out to be over 150,000 miles, over 3.5 million calories burned, nearly 8,000 gallons of gasoline saved and 150,000 tons of CO2 prevented.  As of today, there have been over 138,000 rides logged. 

One of the cool things about this program is that whole schools can get involved.  A school installs a ”Freikometer”, which is a solar-powered, internet-enabled RFID reader.  This allows kids’ rides to school to be automatically tracked and reported.  Each trip a kid makes is tallied and at the end of the year, they are rewarded with a party and prizes for their rides.

Here are some of the great features of the Freiker Program:

• Biking or riding to school gets kids exercising.  Rather than sitting in the car or riding the bus, they get exercise by riding or walking to/from school.
• Helps make kids more independent when they don’t NEED to rely on their parents or the bus to get to school.
• If you are a parent, you know how many cars sit and idle outside of school to drop off or pick up kids.  If more kids ride/bike to school this means less congestion and better air quality around the school.
• Since the RFID tags are placed on the kids’ helmet and rides aren’t tracked unless they have their helmet, this promotes safety and helmet use.
• It’s a great activity not only kids, but their parents and the school can support and get involved in. 

And don’t forget, October 7th is International Walk to School Day in the U.S.  Therefore, now is a great time to get your kid started on walking/biking to school as part of the Freiker program.  Talk to your kid’s school about getting involved.

You do your part by car-pooling, riding your bike to work, using a proven fuel additive, taking public transportation, etc. so please get your kids involved too.  The Freiker program sets a great example as it gets kids exercise through biking or walking to school, it’s environmentally-friendly, saves gasoline, lowers emissions and it’s fun!