How Green is My Driving?

Around 400 Denver residents, including the city's mayor, are part of an experiment called "Driving Change." The program has been running since mid-March, and on Monday participants were able to check their "scores" online for the first time.

[Church Slave]

The only reason to slow down is to save money due to the scam of current high gas prices.

There is no oil shortage and co2 is great for the environment so slowing down is a waste of time.

Hybrids are a zero sum game as well. For every hybrid driver slugging along at sub-speed limits there are dozens of cars burning extra gas to speed up and go around them. No gas saved and there is even more Co2 if that is something you lose sleep over.

Drive all you want or all you can afford. If you can't afford to drive all you want then drive less. Poof! The free market in action.

Enjoy yourself, enjoy your life.

[PIPEWRENCH]

Church Slave wrote:

The only reason to slow down is to save money due to the scam of current high gas prices.
There is no oil shortage and co2 is great for the environment so slowing down is a waste of time.
Hybrids are a zero sum game as well. For every hybrid driver slugging along at sub-speed limits there are dozens of cars burning extra gas to speed up and go around them. No gas saved and there is even more Co2 if that is something you lose sleep over.
Drive all you want or all you can afford. If you can't afford to drive all you want then drive less. Poof! The free market in action.
Enjoy yourself, enjoy your life.

you should ride a bike and never be allowed to drive a vehichle again because of you stinky attitude....

[numbnutz]

if you drive anything with an internal combustion engine.....nothing green about it.

[Leria]

PIPEWRENCH wrote:

<quoted text>you should ride a bike and never be allowed to drive a vehichle again because of you stinky attitude....

Hey, he happens to be right on most points. While Hybrids are not a zero-sum game (they are going to be THE future of automobiles), he has a good point about people going the speed limit just have people pass them and go faster.
Personally, I think that we should limit all cars to a maximum of 55mph on everything, including major highways.
It is a NERVE-RACKING experience for me, trying to drive on a major highway, because I HATE to go faster than 55 mph.... I just don't feel that I can control the car if I am going faster than that.

[numbnutz]

hybrids are not the future of the automobile.
If you can't drive faster than 55...don't. just stay in the right hand lane.

[hsmith]

numbnutz wrote:

hybrids are not the future of the automobile.
If you can't drive faster than 55...don't. just stay in the right hand lane.

Exactly...

[AJM]

I have heard it said "Colorado is California East" because there is so many transplanted Calif. Wackos in Colorado. After they destroyed Calif. and could not afford to live there any more they moved to Colorado and in the process of destroying it also. The people of this nation and perhaps of the World are giving their freedom and very lives to the HOAX OF GOBAL WARMING. So make peace with your maker and prepar to be sacrificed on the alter of Global Warming Religion.

[AJM]

PIPEWRENCH wrote:

<quoted text>you should ride a bike and never be allowed to drive a vehichle again because of you stinky attitude....

.
.
Lets see A Pipewench has mostly Jaws and no brain? Perhaps a good name for you?

[topgun]

hybreds cost more to drive ,because of the price of the car ,and if you dont buy a high price repair policy on the car ,you could not afford the new batteries!!!!!!!! The speed limiy should be all lowered to 55 per hour ,every body would get a lot better gas milage ,and a lot less peoploe getting killed on tyhe highway over 60,000 getting killed now ,just bdecause most people are road hogs ,and only in a hurry because they want to show off ,ANY BODY THAT KILLS SOME ONE WHY SPEEDING AND OR RECKLESS DRIVING ,SHOULD BE CHARGED WITH MURDER!!!!!!!!!!

[AJM]

Church Slave wrote:

The only reason to slow down is to save money due to the scam of current high gas prices.
There is no oil shortage and co2 is great for the environment so slowing down is a waste of time.
Hybrids are a zero sum game as well. For every hybrid driver slugging along at sub-speed limits there are dozens of cars burning extra gas to speed up and go around them. No gas saved and there is even more Co2 if that is something you lose sleep over.
Drive all you want or all you can afford. If you can't afford to drive all you want then drive less. Poof! The free market in action.
Enjoy yourself, enjoy your life.

.
.
You have 2 engines 2 transmisions and a BIG Battery to add to the weight of the vechile. NOW just how do you save engery with the HY-bread car unless it is just in your vanity?

[Teddy]

Sure your car gets better mileage at a lower speed, but it takes longer to get to your destination, so what's the difference!

[Saif]

Leria wrote:

<quoted text>
Hey, he happens to be right on most points. While Hybrids are not a zero-sum game (they are going to be THE future of automobiles), he has a good point about people going the speed limit just have people pass them and go faster.
Personally, I think that we should limit all cars to a maximum of 55mph on everything, including major highways.
It is a NERVE-RACKING experience for me, trying to drive on a major highway, because I HATE to go faster than 55 mph.... I just don't feel that I can control the car if I am going faster than that.

If you don't feel that you can control a car at over 55 mph, maybe you should think about giving up driving altogether.

I have slowed my speed down on the highway from an average of 70 mph down to 65 mph. My mileage has gone up from 35 to 37+ mpg due to this change. I also bought a small car that obviously gets great mileage during the last month.

What makes me shake my head are the people in the Cadillac Escalades that fly by me at over 80 mph. They can't be getting over 15 mpg. These are the same people that piss and moan that it is aver $100 to fill up their tank.

This conspicuous consumerism has to end if we expect to survive as a nation.

[Saif]

Teddy wrote:

Sure your car gets better mileage at a lower speed, but it takes longer to get to your destination, so what's the difference!

So leave sooner. The difference is that if you normally get 20 miles to the gallon at 70 mph, and you get 25 mpg at 65 mph, on a 400 mile trip it would take you 24 minutes longer to get there, but you would use 4 fewer gallons of gas.

Savings =$16
Lost time = 24 minutes

Kind of a no-brainer, ain't it Tex?

[St Louis MO]

Slow down not only to save gas, but to save lives. I try to take the transit system, ride a bike or use my legs to walk. I know it's hard if you don't work close. They need to go to back to building small businesses in local neighborhoods like the old days. We used to walk to the stores and to school and to the park or wherever. Cars were originally built as a luxury. Now they are a necessity. People can't live without them. As long as cars burn gas, they'll never be green.

[Disgusted Observer]

AJM wrote:

<quoted text> -- You have 2 engines 2 transmisions and a BIG Battery to add to the weight of the vechile. NOW just how do you save engery with the HY-bread car unless it is just in your vanity?

AJM: Please grab your right ear with your left hand and your left ear with your right hand and pull - you should recognize that slick sliding sensation, as your optic orbs disassociate from your rectal sphincter - Modern hybird: ONE - small, light weight, highly efficient engine, ZERO transmissions - a comparatively light weight electric motor instead, uses light weight electronics components - about 5 pounds - instead - and a light weight modern high energy battery. Total weight of propulson system about 1/3rd that of a compact sedan engine.

HOWEVER, current technology DOES make them primarily a street hopper - local city driving - but for MOST Americans, that's about all they do anyway - even here in Utah with miles and miles o nothing but miles and miles - 30 miles is considered a monstorous commute and is accompishd most of the time at speeds (due to congestion on the road) of about 35 to 45 MPH - Even off-hour driving in Metro areas is 55 go 65, easily handled by a hybird.

Before you start regurgitating fecal matter, pull your head out and get the facts. A "muscle" hybird can hold normal freeway speeds long enough to avoid being an obstruction on the road and still run clean and lean - But this is nothing new - clear back circa 1960 my folks were looking at a hybird that got 40 MPG city - but it was ugly and too small for a family of 4 - but modern technoloy has overcome those problems.

Modern materials and technoloies have made giant strides and only consumer sloth has prevented still greater advancements - go see the movie, "Who killed the electric car" - learn something - then think hybird electric / gas.

[Disgusted Observer]

OH - a few last thoughts before I shut down -

My driving is as green as it gets - I "drive" a bicycle - and I'm 66 years old and live on a rathr steep hill. I get plenty of exercise - and save on the order of $50 a week vs a late model car. On my worst days, when I'm VERY tired, I ride the ELECTRIC train (with bicycle along) the 1/2 mile UP the hill on the way home.

Back circa 1958-59 my class mates were building hybrid cars from used aircraft parts and old VW "Beetles" and another about the equivalent of a 1970 Datsun B210 - the starter motor and generator from a small plane - the gas engine from a motor scooter or "cheap Japanese motorcycle" - as many 12 volt auto batteries as could be scrounged at the junk yard (usually about 6 - in series parallel to provide 24 volts and about 1,000 amp hours), some light welding, some primitave (by today's standards) electical controls and a VW Beetle became a novel toy - novel toy because gas was below 19 cents a gallon, air polluition was not considered a problem, and the cost of the used parts did not justify the gas savings from about 12 to 15 MPG up to 20 to 25 MPG - yeah, that's 100% increase, but amortization would take more than the life expectancy of the contraption. Then, 1973, OPEC decided to "punish" America -(a lie - shown later to be an oil co fabrication) and the faux "Oil Embargo" jumped the price from 37.9/gal to $1.50/gal in less than a week. Farce exposed, prices went back to a "mere" 75.9/gallon and American sighed a huge sigh of relief (Morons!). Every summer since then, the oil companies have repeated the ruse - jacking prices WAY up for summer = or winter, depending on the current fad - and then dropped them back about 1/4 of the previous incease - and again, American heaves a sigh of relief at the "reduced" price of gas.

And here we are, 2008 - nearly 50 years later and we are still falling for the same old ruse - and "some morons" are still saying the hybrid car is impractical. Blind leading the blind.

[PIPEWRENCH]

Leria wrote:

<quoted text>
Hey, he happens to be right on most points. While Hybrids are not a zero-sum game (they are going to be THE future of automobiles), he has a good point about people going the speed limit just have people pass them and go faster.
Personally, I think that we should limit all cars to a maximum of 55mph on everything, including major highways.
It is a NERVE-RACKING experience for me, trying to drive on a major highway, because I HATE to go faster than 55 mph.... I just don't feel that I can control the car if I am going faster than that.

no you are wrong !@

[PIPEWRENCH]

Saif wrote:

<quoted text>
So leave sooner. The difference is that if you normally get 20 miles to the gallon at 70 mph, and you get 25 mpg at 65 mph, on a 400 mile trip it would take you 24 minutes longer to get there, but you would use 4 fewer gallons of gas.
Savings =$16
Lost time = 24 minutes
Kind of a no-brainer, ain't it Tex?

You mpg is way off,so your little math lesson is useless..........five miles to the gallon better by slowing down 5mph.......... no i dont think so fellow........he he he

[GigaTOE]

PIPEWRENCH wrote:

<quoted text>You mpg is way off,so your little math lesson is useless..........five miles to the gallon better by slowing down 5mph.......... no i dont think so fellow........he he he

The math is not out of the ballpark. Look at the graph from the EPA included in the article (it should also be above), and extrapolate down by 5 MPG. The graph is generic; for cars that are less aerodynamic the right hand graph has a steeper negative slope. Remember that aerodynamic friction increases to the square of speed.

[gonzales]

I don't know how green my driving is, but you should see how green my boogers are!