Autumn's+Transportation

What are the major ways you can conserve transportation energy ?: Mass Transit 
 * Work close to Home
 * Work in Home
 * Better fuel efficiency
 * Alternative Fuels/power
 * Tax Gasoline
 * Use public transport such as buses or taxi cabs
 * Ride a horse
 * Car Pool
 * Purchase a hybrid or electric car
 * Walk
 * Ride a bike, Its 3 times more efficient than walking, 5 times more efficient than using the train, and 15 to 20 times more efficient than driving a car.
 * Don't buy SUVS or trucks

Whenever possible, walk, bike, car pool, or use mass transit. Every gallon of gasoline you save avoids 22 pounds of CO2 emissions. If your car gets 25 miles per gallon, for example, and you reduce your annual driving from 12,000 to 10,000 miles, you'll save 1800 pounds of CO2.

School buses travel in excess of four billion miles annually consuming 900 million gallons of fuel, transporting 55 percent of the school enrollment (grades K-12). Since the fuel allocation emergency, school transportation managers have begun efforts to reduce the amount of fuel required to transport pupils to and from classroom sessions and school-related activities **GM**

Use ethanol blend fuels instead of normal gasoline. They may actually cost a few cents more per fill-up than the normal gasoline, but there are anecdotal reports that you will get better gas mileage with ethanol blend fuels (due a higher effective octane content), and a slightly lower fuel cost per km (or mile). Try it yourself, compare your mileage on a tank full of normal gasoline, and then with a tank full of ethanol blend. Increased demand for ethanol should result in economies of scale in production, thus eventually lowering the cost below that of normal gasoline on a per unit basis. As for the environment, ethanol blend fuels produce less noxious emissions than normal gasoline. **(Jake)**

When shopping, consider buying a "hybrid". The current offerings are electric-assisted gasoline cars, but their gas mileage can be phenomenal. The Honda Insight is rated at 3 liters per 100 km or about 70 miles per U.S. gallon. I have friends that have reported getting 90 miles per U.S. gallon with careful driving in the Insight. The Toyota Prius seats 4 adults, and boasts a 4 liters per 100 km (52 miles per U.S. gallon - city driving) fuel consumption. I have driven one of these, and can confirm these figures from personal experience. **(Jake)**

Make sure your vehicle is running properly. Bad ignition components, fouled spark plugs and dirty air filters will all increase fuel consumption and reduce performance. Check the tire pressure on your vehicles. Underinflated tires increases fuel consumption and tire wear. Overinflated tires can cause uneven tire wear, and reduce the contact area with the road, and control of the vehicle. **(Jake)**

The reason for the increase of fuel consumption, you may ask. When parts are dirty they dont allow proper function and make the work these parts work harder then what they should have to. Think of it like this, when you run you start off good and your running strong. Within time you get tired and your body works harder to run and breath. Well thats kinda what happens to a car. **(Branden)**