Conserve Energy on the Road
Take your energy conservation to the road and find alternative ways to get to your destinations. You'll save money on gas, and you'll be helping Hawai‘i stay green.
Take your commitment to a clean energy lifestyle with you on the road. Transportation accounts for more than 60% of the energy consumed in Hawai‘i. While air transportation uses the largest portion (nearly 40%), trucks, buses, and cars consume roughly 20%. So taking steps to use fuel more efficiently on the road is a great way to help shrink Hawai‘i's carbon footprint.
According to the Hawai‘i Department of Transportation, the number of registered vehicles on O‘ahu alone has almost doubled in the past 20 years. So has the number of motor vehicles per mile of street or highway. For those who live, work, vacation, or do business on O‘ahu, this means gridlock. As our population increases, traffic is only going to get worse unless we all do our part to help change it.
Sitting in traffic is stressful. It also wastes energy and pollutes our environment. There are many alternatives that are healthy for you and the environment. The following tips are from the state of Hawai‘i and www.fueleconomy.gov:
- Walk or bike when you aren't in a hurry or have shorter distances to travel.
- Carpool, vanpool, or take the bus whenever you can.
- Take advantage of ride sharing networks—or organize one yourself.
- Park your car for free all day in a park & ride lot convenient to your bus stop or carpool meeting place.
- Keep your car or truck tuned up to maximize fuel efficiency and reduce emissions.
- Make sure your tires are properly inflated, which can reduce your emissions by as much as 3%.
- Consider going without a car.
- Trade your gas guzzler for a fuel-efficient car, a hybrid, a flexible fuel vehicle, or a clean diesel vehicle (which would allow you to use bio-diesel).
- Buy a motorcycle or moped.
- Work from home.
Sometimes, driving is the only option. In that case, here are some smart tips for the road:
- Chill. Driving aggressively (speeding, rapid acceleration, and braking) wastes gas. Driving calmly and sensibly can lower your gas mileage by 33% at highway speeds and by 5% around town. Sensible driving is also safer for you and others, so you may save more than gas money.
- Go the speed limit. Gas mileage tends to deteriorate rapidly at speeds above 60 mph. As a rule of thumb, figure that each 5 mph you drive over 60 mph is like paying an extra 20 cents a gallon for gas.
- Shed some weight. Leave your toys out of the car unless you're headed for the beach, the golf course, or the hills. Same with your tools, unless you're off to work. An extra 100 pounds in your vehicle could reduce your mileage by up to 2%. This impacts smaller vehicles more than larger ones.
- Avoid idling. Idling gets zero miles per gallon. The bigger your engine, the more gas you waste when idling.
- Cruise. Using cruise control on the highway helps you maintain a constant speed and tends to save gas.
- Shift into overdrive. When you use overdrive gearing, your car's engine speed goes down, saving gas and reducing engine wear and tear.
- Go A/C free. Using air-conditioning dramatically reduces your mileage, especially in stop-and-go city traffic. Roll down the windows and turn off the air whenever possible. When air-conditioning is a must, rolling down the windows for a minute as you begin driving will let the hot air escape and cut down on the amount of energy needed to cool your car.
Learn more at www.fueleconomy.gov.
On the Horizon: A Better Place
If all goes as planned, Hawai‘i residents and visitors will be zipping around the islands in electric vehicles within a year. In December 2008, Governor Linda Lingle announced a plan aimed at putting more than 3,000 electric cars on our roads by 2010 and more than 50,000 by 2015. The plan is supported by activities such as the partnership between Hawaiian Electric Company and the California-based electric vehicle services firm Better Place, which would offer Hawai‘i drivers electric vehicle mileage plans that would reduce the cost to power our cars to 8 cents a mile from the 13 cents a mile we were paying at the end of 2008. Act 156, passed by the Hawai‘i legislature in May 2009 and signed by the governor in June, also supports plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and encourages their widespread adoption and use. It requires parking lots to dedicate spaces to electrically charged vehicles and establishes a grant program for building fueling stations and other infrastructure needed to provide Hawai‘i with convenient and affordable access to the energy required to power electric vehicles.
