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There has been a lot of news lately about how gas prices are going to reach $4.00/gallon this summer.  So I thought it would be appropriate to talk about how your driving style can directly impact the fuel consumption of your car. When a car manufacturer publishes the fuel economy (like say 35 MPG), this is achieved under closer to ideal conditions, and driving style (along with road condition) can change the actual MPG achieved.  I believe that there are essentially 3 types of drivers: 1. Aggressive, 2. PITAs, and 3. Easy Going.

Aggressive drivers waste a lot of fuel.  The real quick speeding up to get around someone or just to take off at a light really uses gas unnecessarily.  Do you really need to get in front of the next car to make it to your destination 5 seconds sooner?  The last minute breaking is also wasteful.  Aggressive drivers use full amounts of fuel until the last minute when they hit their breaks, when they could be slowing down sooner and use a lot less gas.

Pain In The A** (PITA) drivers also waste fuel.  Let me explain my term for a PITA driver.  This is the person that drives insanely slow, takes forever to make a turn, and sits at light long after it has turned green.  Some people might ask, if they are driving so slowly, how could they be wasting gas?  Think of it this way, accelerating takes more gas than just cruising.  If I accelerate at a normal pace for say 1 minute, yes more gas is consumed than if I accelerate at a slower speed for 1 minute.  But it will take much longer for a PITA driver to get up to cruising speed; therefore they are using more gas for the trip they are making.  (Yes, there is a sweet spot for this, but I think that is where the calm, easy going driving fits in.)

The easy going, calm driver fits in in-between the previous two driving styles.  Easy acceleration, but not too slow.  Takes the foot off the gas pedal and just coasts on an exit ramp when they know they need to stop.  This style of driving can achieve close to peak fuel efficiency for the vehicle they are driving.

So I’ve been watching how I drive the past couple weeks and try to be a much more calm driver.  With the instant fuel efficiency indicator that I have in my car, I can really watch how I drive impacts the fuel economy. Here is a short list of things that I’ve been watching myself do to get better fuel efficiency:

1. Take my foot off the pedal on exit ramps and just coast
2. Let myself speed up on the downhill to store up momentum (no speeding tickets from this yet)
3. Let the car slow down a bit while going uphill (what goes up must come down, see #2)
4. Don’t just “take off” from a red light, ease into it
5. Anticipate the traffic  in front of me, so that I can change lanes before reaching a car that I would have to slow down for and then speed up again after the lane change

Even with all of these changes, it doesn’t change how long it takes me to get to my destination either.  So what kind of driving style do you currently have?

Remember to perform basic maintenance on your car to also help with fuel efficiency.

So this weekend my parents will be visiting all the family back here in Ohio, paired with my sweet little niece (4 months old), I need to charge my batteries for my camera.  I tend to use a lot of batteries with my camera (I tend to think of myself as an amateur photographer). So naturally I use rechargeables to save money on batteries.  As I pondered this, why not use rechargeable batteries for everything. I know several people that do this already.

Batteries contain a chemical called Cadmium.  While batteries are safe while in use, they are not so safe if they are just thrown away.  If this chemical leaks, it can have numerous negative effects including lung and kidney disease.  This is why batteries need to be recycled appropriately.  If you don’t know where you can recycle these, go to Earth911.org and do a search with your zip code.

Next time I need batteries, I’m going to buy the rechargeable kind for whatever size battery I need.  I really mean any kind of battery, for whatever, like the remote control, playstation (or WII) controller, flashlights, radios, alarm clock, mp3 player, handheld games, the list goes on. This should really cut back on the amount of batteries I need to buy and recycle.

When I tell people about the going green thing, many people ask if I’m going vegetarian.  That really opens up the opportunity for me to tell them how this is a no sacrifice way of going green and that I am not giving up things that I love (including meat).  I also don’t think I have enough knowledge of how be vegetarian and still be healthy.  Meat is a great source of protein and I recently found out that it is the only natural way to consume B12 vitamin. People who are really into the environment talk about how meat raised for consumption is so awful for the environment.  So I thought I would do some research.

I found a very thorough article published by Environment Health Perspectives.  It is a lengthy article (25 pages), but well researched and very informative.  If you have the time, you should definitely read it.  I’ll give you the short version.  More crops in the U.S. are grown to be fed to cattle than humans.  Tons of emissions involved in transporting the crops to the cattle.  “Modern” care of animals force excessive amounts of methane gas to be emitted. Then there is all the energy and emissions in slaughtering the animals and transporting the meat to consumers. All-in-all animals raised for consumption have just as much negative impact on our environment as driving cars.

The entire article does make me want to really do something different, but I’m torn because I don’t want to give up meat.  When I think about how much meat I eat… Wow! So here is my compromise.  I have decided to take a few baby steps. 

Step 1 - Go vegetarian for breakfast and lunch.  I’ve actually been doing this for the past 3 weeks and it isn’t as hard as you might think.  My breakfasts are usually yogurt and fruit or oatmeal (pretty easy).  Lunches are a touch more challenging for me.  For the past year I’ve been trying to live with more of a WeightWatchers lifestyle, and to help me with that I usually eat SmartOnes or Lean Cuisine for lunch.  So many of the frozen foods that are geared to be healthy for you also contain meat.  While I’m at the grocery store, I’m trying to make a concerted effort to make sure I buy these “healthy” frozen meals that do not contain meat.

Step 2 – Add in more vegetarian meals for dinner.  I’m not there yet.  This is something for later on down the line, but I realize I need to start researching it now.  There are two challenges for me with this step.  The first challenge is that I have a ton of recipes that are meat based, and very few that are vegetarian (besides Italian pasta dishes).  The second challenge, and the harder part, is that dinner not only affects me, but also my husband.  So these new recipes I want to start learning also have to be food that Mike will like and feel satisfied with.  My friend Emily suggested stir-fry, which I think is a great idea and I think Mike will like it.  That is one that I will try. If you have any suggestions, I would be happy to take any tips, websites, recipes, etc.

My end goal is to work down to about 3 dinners per week that have meat.