With gas up well over $4 a gallon (here, a brief pause while you all gasp) I’ve been limiting my own gasoline usage for quite awhile. I’m fortunate that we live within walking distance to town and both of my boys can walk to work. Since I work from home, I generally only drive the car once or twice a week. Certainly I drive it little enough that I’ve wondered if we truly need it.
This month, as school gets into full swing, many families may see a surge in their fuel usage – but I’m challenging you to cut it. Inspired by this post over at Living Large in Our Little House, join me during the month of September as I work to cut my driving down even more. As Living Large asks:
Do you really need to take the kids to school and pick them up, idling your car in those long lines in front of the school?
Here’s the challenge: Eliminate ONE car trip from your weekly travels. Ask yourself if you really need to drive to the post office, the bank, the store. Could you save that trip and do it on the day you have a can’t-miss appointment scheduled?
Living Large offers some great tips for using less gas. Here are a few more:
- If you must deliver kids to and from school, make friends with the neighbors. Sharing this duty will save fuel for both of you.
- If you’re a daily commuter, consider taking the bus one day a week. If there’s no way around driving to work and back, see if you can ride share. If those are just not possible, eliminate a weekend car trip.
- Use a shopping list. Running back to the store for the one item you forgot uses just as much gas as you’d use for an entire carload of groceries.
- Stock up at the store if you can. If you’ve got a full pantry, you’ll be less inclined to head to the store for one little thing.
- If your pantry is relatively full, shop at home. Instead of making what sounds good for dinner (how’d we get into that bad habit?) make dinner with the ingredients you have on hand.
So. Who’s in? What’s ONE car trip in a week? Surely you can join in for the greater good!
Photo: Flickr user Dylan Passmore
We’ve been doing this for quite a while. My son suffers from a chronic disease and has 4 different doctors. We plan almost all of our trips to town (13 miles away) around his almost monthly doctor appointments – and if at all possible, he tries to schedule 2 appointments on the same day. We use the appointment trip days for errand running: library, groceries, bank, and any other errand we have to do while there. On weeks there are no appointments, the car stays parked in our driveway. Sometimes we need to make trips not doctor related -I am a food writer and also write articles for an on-line entity about farmers markets and CSA farms/farmers all around our island (we have a lot of them!)- and also participate when asked to be a judge in food contests or help plan food events around the island, so those trips are extra, but usually generate some form of income from the writing.
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As I read this I had to chuckle. I have limited my driving since gas hit $3/gal and we all know how long ago that is. I get one car trip per week and yes I must use the car to go buy the weekly food as I live 30 miles from town. I cannot imagine having to carry food for 5 that far!
I have been able to go every other week when I really work hard on planning my trip.
I have lived in town in the past and it always baffled me how people just hop in their car and run to the store 5-6 times and more per day just because. Weather permitting I walked to the store while living in town.
This is a great challenge, I look forwrd to hearing how others manage limiting trips.
I’m in! We’re a one vehicle family and started changing our driving habits when the gas prices first began rising. Actually I’m legally blind so don’t drive anyway.
Since the high prices kicked in I’ve started walking to take care of all our business in town including grocery shopping. Our truck seldom leaves the driveway. When it does, it’s to travel to our little camp in the woods 8 miles away.
We’ve cut back a lot already, too. But the idea of being even MORE efficient in our vehicle use appeals to me, so I’ll be trying to cut even more. I love reading that you folks are also already cutting back on driving when possible.
Thanks for the shout out, Kris! We’ve cut down our fuel usage considerably, especially since moving here to the country. I was gone for 6 hours yesterday, getting everything done that needs to be done for the weekly errands. People can do this if they just plan a little!
It does take some planning, but I have found that a busy long day is totally worth it to me to have an uninterrupted day at home.
Cutting back here as well. We often carpool as a family, and try to do all our errands, appointments, family visits, etc. when we are in town. In fact we’ve been so conscience about gas prices, that our gas bills have actually decreased! Another thing is to enjoy things to do at home. We have a garden, exercise equipment, home entertainment system, mountain bikes, and a huge inflatable pool for those hot days. We also love to entertain and have barbecues, so the need to go out has diminished considerably. I see a trend here where people will start to make their homes more livable as gas prices go up.
David, you make an *excellent point about finding things to do at home instead of driving TO entertainment.
I know this isn’t possible for everyone, but I now bike for short errands like the post office and picking up prescriptions. It even works for grocery shopping if I’m not doing a big stock-up.
I’ve owned two cars in my 30 year driving history and I’ve worked from home for more than a dozen. Does that buy me a free pass? I can also walk to train, movies, cafes, farmers’ market etc.
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You have inspired me! Tomorrow I have to go to the post office, a mile away. I will WALK rather than drive.
Healthy AND better for the environment!
I do in home Hospice care & that requires a car but I have been cutting out two 14 mile trips per week by staying over at my client’s house 2 nights per week for almost a year. On my days off I don’t drive at all any more… I either ride public transit or my bike, and I shop close to home or work now. It’s not so hard to make the change. I’m also downsizing my life, hoping to tiny house it within a year.
Staying overnight a couple times a week is an excellent solution!
We are doing more than reducing gas use, we stopped using our electric furnace 3 years ago… we switched to electric blankets and 2 rolling radiant heaters, it cut our winter heat bills by 70%… to the point our power company wanted to come check our meter. LOL Oddly enough, with a much cooler house we are sick less. We have a few unpleasant winter days w/ reduced heat, but not enough to make us switch back to the furnace.
When it started dying, we dumped our large frig for an under counter all frig and an energy eff. 5 cuft chest freezer = much less food waste, and using half the energy. We’re also eating healthier, no processed foods, cooking once a week from scratch with less salt and leaner meats and then freezing meals ahead, this means we also produce a lot less garbage. We also dumped the extra TV and spend more time together as a family.
If Zipcar realized many of us in the burbs would love to use their cars for errands I would dump mine, but they seem to be focused on the Intel teckies in SW Portland… this means the closest one to me is over an hour bus ride away and not at all practical to use.
The rural mobile home park we live in forbids us from installing clotheslines so I have a stealth one I use all summer and fall… out of view, taken down after each days use.
I’ve been following you on twitter for some time, and due to gentle nudging by you, a program my son is in, and my own disposition I’ve decided to work to lower my family’s footprint. Recently I clued in that I am biking/walking distance to school and groceries. Since I need the trailer to bring my younger son anyways, I can carry a fair bit. So one of my first goals is to reduce car use.
I also intend to put in a veggie garden in the spring and am looking into the legalities of raising chickens in my municipality. To start the garden, we have restarted using the composter and I think I will turn over the ground soon ( and compost that sod). I need to figure out what to plant.
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Tonya, comments like this make me so happy.
Stick around and share your gardening successes, too!
I work 50 miles from my home and have been pondering renting a place in town to stay during weekdays. But I have my garden and chicken, husband and daughter at home and I would miss all of that terribly. Do I rent a place (cheaper than gas I pay) or buy a more fuel efficient car (hybrid?)? What would be better?
Liana, I’ve been pondering this. Certainly, a hybrid car would cut your fuel usage. As for renting a place, it sounds like it would be more cost effective, but environmentally, I’m not sure it’s much of an improvement. Living separately from your family 5 nights a week means that you’ll use more electricity (diesel generated, here) and possibly “doubles” of certain food items.
Is car-pooling an option for you? Could you instigate something like that with a fellow employee or two? Or commit to catching the bus one day per week?
my car hasn’t been running for several months and it’s not yet in the budget to fix it, although it is a fuel efficient older VW. I’ve always walked quited a bit and occasinally taken the bus — been doing more of both these last months.
something else I’d mention is that when I travel, I always make a point to find out about public transportation and walking options to get around as well. in several cities where I go often (Boston/Cambridge, for example) I’ve found I can purchase reloadable fare cards for public transport which also give me a discount on the fare, and they don’t expire, so I can use them again on my next trip.
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I put in for teleworking and, if approved, I’ll be driving to work 50% less! :^D
Terrific! More companies should consider this, I think.
My husband telecommutes (lucky booger!) He goes to the office literally four days a year: he takes the train (and comes back in three pieces, I have to be ready to catch him with the superglue, I mean a nice meal, to put him back together again).
The new CAFE2025 standards for cars’ fuel efficiency should do a lot to help us save money at the pump and save on CO2 emissions. Many cars with much higher fuel efficiency are already on the roads all over the rest of the planet. It’s up to us consumers to make the carmakers make them available to us in the US, by asking for them. http://bit.ly/u4xCSN
The speed of a gas particle is proportional to its absolute temperature. The volume of the balloon in the video shrinks when the trapped gas particles slow down with the addition of extremely cold nitrogen.