We hear news reports often these days about how to save money on gasoline without spending extra money on automobile modifications or buying a new hybrid or electric car. California is continuing this trend with their new EcoDriving Initiative, an easy way to find tips on saving gas and reducing emissions at the same time.
But the ideas behind EcoDriving- such as maintaining a steady speed, or checking tire pressure- are not new. In fact, the entire campaign has begun to come under scrutiny for not doing enough to decrease automotive emissions and motivate drivers.
While the site does have helpful tools such as the EcoCalculator, and Virtual Road Test (a mildly entertaining type of driving game) most of the information is either common sense or already readily available to the general public. So what more is there for motorists?
Luckly the EcoDriving campaign is the only program out there touting the merits of ‘driving green.’ Ford Motors has begun it’s own program in partnership with the Pro Formance Group of Pheonix, Arizona. This program, while exposing the same types of driving tips as EcoDriving, has an added component of actual road tests and driving coaches, giving drivers an hands-on feel of putting these techniques into practice. By allowing people to practice what they hear, they are more likely to use these techniques on the road, and not only that, but use them correctly.
On the whole, these ‘eco-driving’ tips are really ‘smart driving’ tips. Practices such as maintaining legal speed not only help save gas and limit excess acceleration and deceleration; they actually make the road safer for other drivers, and for the current driver. The same goes for correct tire pressure and smooth stopping and starting.
But the fact remains that while these practices do help reduce C02, they are no match for alternative energy sources. The greatest threat fear right now is that the real reason so many people are switching to “eco-driving” is to save money on high gas prices. This is certainly a motivating factor in eco-auto production, but hopefully these programs will continue to spread the word about dangerous emission and petrol use, and not a false sense of security about the dangers of automotive pollution.
