Moving About the Planet

Are you surprised that almost 30% of our energy use goes to transporting us and our stuff? America is a nation on the move! About 40% of us are high fliers (literally), winging our way to meetings or to see Grandma. And we really love our cars (especially the ones getting better gas mileage). But who wouldn’t say NO to the by-products of travel: congestion, stress, higher levels of CO2, and too many $$$ for imported oil and YES to more peace and calm, cleaner air, better all-around fuel economy and more $$$ in the wallet?

Here’s your Earth: The Operators’ Manual “Getting Started” tips for travel

Moving	What to do	Goodies for you	Did You Know?
Driving	Buy a high MPG car; over 125 2012 models get over 27 MPG.	$$$ -- $800-$1400 per year stays in your wallet; Green Car Reports has more info and check out Wattzon's driving tracker and monitor for specifics on all cars rated over the past 20 years to compare with your car.	85% of the energy consumed by a car is in the driving; only 15 % goes to manufacture it
	Lighten up on acceleration and braking	$$$	Jack rabbit starts can use up to 40% more fuel
	Ease the speed	$$$	Fuel efficiency decreases over 60 mph
	Combine your local trips – to market, bank and drugstore	$$$	More than 50% of driving trips are 10 miles or less
	Just (don’t) do it. Walk, bike, carpool, telecommute and take mass transit more	$$$ + a fitter you	If you got your boss to agree to one day a week of telecommuting, you’d reduce gas use by 5-10%
Flying	Skip the trip	Good-bye to long security lines and pat-downs, baggage fees and the inevitable, unexplained delay	60% of Americans don't fly, but for the other 40%, just 1 long trip can equal up to 30% of a person's annual energy use
	Drive vs Fly: depends on your mpg & distance: 400mi LA-SF trip in a 20mpg car uses 20 gal. vs 7 gal per seat on plane	A little math practice, since this one takes some calculations, based on figures from Dept of Transportation	Both cars and planes are major CO2 emitters, about 20 lbs per of CO2 per gallon of fuel

Wattzon's driving monitor and tracker
Wattzon's air travel monitor and tracker

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