DRIVE LESS

 

"Cars are multiplying faster than people. They're outbreathing us, too. They're using up our land area. They're using up our economic strength. "‑Ernest Callenbach, author of Ecotopia.

 

BACKGROUND.

 

Our entire society is built around having and driving‑cars .... So it probably seems like we're suggesting the impossible when we propose a cutback in driving. But other societies have done it: In the Netherlands, for example, 80% of train commuters get to the station on a bicycle; in Denmark, about 30% of all trips are taken on bikes; and Japan even has bicycle parking garages in urban areas.

 

Whenever Americans complain about the shoddy environmental practices of other cultures (e.g., Brazil rainforest policies), people point out that we own most of the world's vehicles, and we're doing little to control them. They're right. So for the truly committed, this is a priority.

 

DID YOU KNOW 0 On an average, the 140 million cars in America are estimated to travel almost 4 billion miles a day...and according to the DOT, they use over 200 million gallons of gas doing it. * The ecological effects are staggering. One result of burning 200 million gallons of gas, for example, is the emission of about 4 billion pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. And that's just one day's worth.

 

SIMPLE THINGS TO DO For starters, we could try using an alternative means of transportation‑buses, subways, trains, bicycle, or walking‑just one day a week. Even that may be tough‑but it's worth the effort.

 

RESULTS

If only 1% of the car owners in America left their cars idle for one day a week, it would save an estimated 96 million gallons of gas a year. Destructive emissions would be cut down cqmmensurately; we'd keep some 2 billion pounds of C02 out of the atmosphere, for

instance.