Last Updated on May 4, 2023 by Shavy Jain
In the era of everything green, why should your long drives be any different? Green driving or eco-friendly driving is a broad range of practices and behaviors that help you optimize your regular cars by making them environmentally less polluting.
Not every one of us can buy a brand-new Tesla or another EV that makes deep cuts to the pocket. Sustainable transportation does not always need to be something expensive. Most Americans have a household income of $ 71,000. It is unrealistic to expect many of them to get super-pricey cars for the sake of the environment.
What is Green Driving?
Green driving is simply a set of practices and habits that help to reduce the negative impact of driving on the environment. It’s all about making conscious choices that minimize fuel consumption, and greenhouse gas emissions, and maximize fuel efficiency. Sounds good, right? And the best part is, you don’t need to break the bank to do it!
As environmental awareness and planetary concerns are on the rise, these small attempts to improve the SQ or sustainability quotient of your lifestyle are a great way to contribute. This also reduces the guilt that usually weighs heavy for not living a life that involves fuel-efficient driving or owning an electric vehicle.
Benefits of Green Driving
When we talk about the benefits of different sustainable transportation, the clear contender is Green Driving because not only it is a cheaper alternative but it is surprisingly effective. Green driving is an easy and efficient way to improve your positive impact on the planet’s well-being. Besides reducing your carbon footprint it has other benefits. Let us check a few of the many benefits of fuel-efficient driving.
Saves You Money
Duh, the quite obvious one. When you take care of your tire pressure regularly, ensure that brakes and acceleration are working smoothly. All this while maintaining your fuel efficiency can do wonders for your car.
If you don’t want to spend too much on your vehicle without any reason. You better take care of your car as you take care of yourself. Consistency is the key. All this will mean, you will need more than a few trips to a repair shop and pay huge bucks for minor inconveniences. Going green can save you some serious cash, especially if you drive regularly. Besides this, reducing your fuel consumption can go a long way.
Reduces Air Pollution
When we say green! you say clean! As of now, it is common knowledge that using fuel-efficient vehicles and carpooling can drastically reduce vehicular emissions. Low emissions can only mean good things. As it means lesser air pollution and safe respiratory health. The benefit of using green driving habits is a long-term one. The basic principle is higher carpooling, lower cars, and therefore lesser pollution. Another similar solution is using public transport whenever possible.
Increases Vehicle’s Lifespan
When you follow sustainable transportation, the lifespan of your vehicle improves too. Driving green also helps to increase the lifespan of your vehicle. When you drive smoothly and maintain proper tire pressure, you put less strain on your vehicle, which means it will last longer. This means fewer repairs and maintenance costs over time.
Reduces Your Carbon Footprint
When you use an electric vehicle or while using the sustainable transportation method, you in a nutshell are reducing your carbon impact on the planet. These are a few of the easier ways to do it. Driving green individually might not seem like a big deal but collectively it can have a huge influence.
Improves Your Driving Experience
This is something that you should consider if you are a regular driver. A sustainably maintained car can improve your driving experience by a mile. When you follow green driving practices, maintenance is easier and makes it less stressful. The ride goes smoother as you don’t have to carry the environmental burden.
So there you have it, tree huggers, Green driving not only helps to protect the environment but also comes with a bunch of other benefits.
Tips for Eco-Friendly Driving
Driving (and transportation at large) is one of the most polluting industries and activities that the human race does. The impact of the individual car owners might seem little or even negligible but collectively (all road transportation) contributes to more than 11.90% of global carbon emissions (OWID) so the following are the tips and tricks that you can use to improve your eco-friendly driving.
- Limit Overspeeding: Overspeeding is not in the sense of the law but in making economical use of the fuel you have. Managing your acceleration, braking and speeding reduces fuel efficiency by 33% according to the EPA. So regulating your speed can be a power move when green driving is considered. To slow down and speed up your car needs to utilize a lot of energy. This use of your car needs a lot of fuel to function properly. So maintaining speed requires some regulation.
- Tier Maintenance: This includes regulating tire pressure, and taking care of your tires. Many things affect how your tires function, this includes the type of tire or even the brand of tires that you use. The size of tires and their make can also vastly impact the speed and therefore efficiency. These small things will affect how to enable fuel-efficient driving.
- Manage Payload: A simple motto to remember and swear by is: watch your (car’s) weight. The fuel used by a car is based on how much load it carries for how long a distance. If the car’s weight is heavier, the energy consumed will be more = more fuel = less sustainable. So ensure that you minimize the baggage that you give your car (not the emotional one)
- Air in the Tire: An extension of the previous tire point is how round is your tire or how inflated your tire is. An underinflated tire can reduce efficiency. Because a full tire has less surface contact and thus less friction. Thanks to this elegant solution, you can keep your vehicle light on its wheels.
- Carpooling & Car Sharing: These are two collective solutions that can be deployed to make maximum use of common car resources. If your car is usually idle, throughout the day, give it to different people who can use it and fill the required gas. This reduces the number of active cars on the road.
As you might know, carpooling is another good way to reduce vehicular emissions. When multiple acquainted people have to reach the same place they can use the common vehicle. This reduces the cost of fuels, and the no. of cars used and may lead to a better bond between the group.
- Upgrade your Fuel or Vehicle: Many of the older car models are energy intensive, which means they are not eco-friendly driving models. Their fuel-guzzling tendency and high upkeep cost might affect how green your driving gets. So if you switch to hybrid cars or begin using biofuels for your vehicle, you can drastically reduce your impact.
- Switch to Public Transportation: For a truly sustainable transportation experience, the more you use public transport, the better you improve the likely hood of making this green transition true, When high-income individuals use public transport more commonly, the systems are improved and well maintained. This benefits all the communities in the region. Think about it. (greenest option available)
Conclusion
In addition to reducing air pollution, sustainable transportation also helps to combat climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions. By choosing green driving practices, you are doing your part to help protect the planet for future generations.
Finally, eco-friendly driving can improve your overall driving experience. When you drive more consistently and are environmentally conscious, your commute to work becomes less stressful and more enjoyable. Plus, you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing you’re doing something for the environment.
So, that’s it for everyone! Whether you’re using an electric car or just driving fuel-efficiently, eco-conscious driving benefits both you and the environment. So let’s all do our part and jump on the sustainable transportation train (or car, as the case may be).
