Going the Extra Mile--Tips from Energy-Saving Hypermilers
So you don't drive a hybrid. But you can still get better mpg in the car you have.
Join the ranks of the hypermilers--people who compete over how much they can improve their fuel economy just by using better driving techniques. There are more of these techniques than you think--and they make a big difference. Here are tips from the website Ecomodder.com on how to maximize your miles.
Give the Brake a Break
One obvious intervention: Don't break hard at a traffic light. Don't waste your momentum--ease off the gas early and coast to a stop. The hypermilers have a whole rulebook on how to avoid braking. Turn wide, so you don't have to brake as hard. Anticipate changes in traffic lights, slowing as you approach in case a green turns red--or in case a red turns green, allowing you to coast slowly toward the light and accelerate when the car isn't completely stopped. And when you do stop, accelerate slowly--don't floor the gas pedal.
Hypermiling Starts Before You Even Start the Car
Taking stuff out of your trunk will lighten your car. Try putting bike racks on the back, not on top, where they add to drag. Or taking off roof racks you don't use. Check your tire pressure: Tires that aren't properly inflated produce too much friction on the road, slowing you down. Tire pressure drops with temperature, so check more often as the seasons change.
No More Idling
Idling means you're getting zero miles per gallon. It's actually better to turn off your engine (that's how hybrids work). Switch the key from "run" to "acc" (not "off"). (This works best in cars with a stick shift and no power steering.) An easier way to reduce idling is to go to gas stations at off-peak times, so you're not waiting for a pump. Avoid the drive-through. Get an E-Z Pass to slide right through toll booths instead of waiting in line.
And of course, do everything you can to avoid getting stuck in traffic. Plan your route ahead of time to avoid rush hour. On city streets, driving in the right lane may mean you end up having to navigate around buses making frequent stops and delivery vehicles double-parked in the street. Pick the lane of least resistance.
Plan Ahead
Run several errands on the same trip. Take the longest trip first. That way, your car warms up more and might not cool all the way down by the time you finish your errand. Starting a warm car is more efficient than getting a cold engine going.
To Draft Or Not to Draft
Drafting off trucks by driving close on their tails might increase efficiency, but it's dangerous and inconsiderate. (A smart hypermiler puts safety first.) But the physics of drafting can come in handy other ways. You can drive next to (and a little behind) trucks to let them reduce crosswinds. And sometimes following a slow-moving truck (at a safe distance) is helpful if you want to slow down without angering other drivers. After all, reducing speed is one of the best ways to improve your mileage.
Amenities and Add-Ons
You don't need your lights on during the day. Don't use four-wheel drive unless you really need it - four-wheel drive increases friction with the road, making your car work harder to move forward. Reduce your use of air conditioning by parking in the shade. Some hypermilers suggest using a beaded seat cover, which increases ventilation and might keep you from reaching for the AC.
But remember, keeping your windows open creates a lot of drag on the car, especially at highway speeds. You can open them in the city--but otherwise, it's best to use your vents.
Drive It Like You Bike It
If you also ride a bicycle, you'll notice a lot of these techniques feel familiar--you probably already do them on a bike. After all, the energy you're burning on a bike is your energy, and it's hard not to notice when you're wasting it. It wouldn't make sense to pedal as hard as you can to a red light and then brake hard. It goes without saying that tight turns on sidewalks force you to slow way down, as opposed to wide turns on streets, where you can keep your momentum going. You ride with as little extra weight as possible. You also avoid stops and starts--ever see those fixed-gear riders balancing at red lights without ever putting their feet down?
Hypermilers say they can improve their fuel efficiency easily by 35 percent. Now, can you go the extra mile?
--Tanya Snyder
Related:
Calculate Your Energy Diet
Green Guide's Travel & Transportation Hub
Cars Buying Guide
Photograph courtesy Lorenzo Menendez, My Shot |
Urban Foragers Cropping Up in U.S.
In Sacramento, they pick figs, kumquats, and plums from public trees. In New York, they harvest purslane--an edible flower--from the cracks in the sidewalk. Down south, it's fiddlehead ferns, and just about everywhere, people are picking black walnuts, wild mushrooms, and dandelion greens.
Urban foraging--gathering fruit, vegetables, and other useful things from parks, lawns, and sidewalks--isn't a new thing. But as more urbanites become aware of the free bounty surrounding them, new issues are--pardon the pun--cropping up. When a public park's berry patch is raided, whose responsibility is it to make sure there are some left for everyone to enjoy? What about pesticides?
The Institute for Culture and Ecology has been studying urban foragers since 2008 to understand how foraging fits into a city's ecosystem. The latest project, studying foragers in Seattle, kicked off in early 2010 with partial funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Since then, researcher Melissa Poe and her team have interviewed 35 foragers.
Among their findings:
This tiny group of foragers--just a small percentage of the people in Seattle who gather wild plants--together picks a whopping 250 different species of plants, year-round. Some have been gathering in Seattle for over 60 years. Most act as caretakers for their favorite spots, which they return to year after year.
Most popular item? "Right now, it's blackberry season," Poe said. Seattle is also home to the Oregon grape--more closely related to the barberry than an actual grape--and English ivy, an invasive vine that Seattle-area crafting groups weave into baskets.
How many people are doing this? It depends. Poe has identified 150 self-identified foragers, but "I don't think people consider what they do wild plant gathering," she told Green Guide.
"It's just what you do. There's a blackberry [plant] in the alley, so you pick it. The number of people who gather blackberries, I am positive, is over half of Seattle."
Foraging can be a risky business: in some municipalities, it's not allowed in public parks. Earlier this year, the New York Times' urban foraging columnist suggested that would-be gatherers pick day lily shoots from Central Park; the Times had to quickly post a clarification that picking plants from city parks was against the law.
"If 15 people decide to go harvest day lilies to stir-fry that night, you could wipe out the entire population of day lilies around the Central Park reservoir," Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe told the Times.
There's another risk: chemicals. "Most of the foragers we have talked to are expressing concerns about toxicity," Poe said. Public park managers aren't necessarily interested in preserving the edibility of the wild things that grow there--don't even start on whatever might grow in a median or alley. Park managers and city planners could make it easier for foragers, Poe suggested, by minimizing the chemicals sprayed or, at the very least, putting up signs to alert would-be foragers when pesticides are at their most potent.
But outweighing those risks? The food is free and would likely go to waste if not harvested. Foraging gets people outdoors, learning more about the environment. And the food is about as local as can be.
--Rachel Kaufman
Related:
Buy Into Bounty--Join a CSA
Green Guide's Food Hub
Seven Steps to Safer, Healthier Food
Photograph courtesy Chris Johns, National Geographic
|
BPA Linked to Higher Testosterone Levels
BPA's in almost everything, it seems. The chemical is great for making transparent, nearly shatter-proof plastic, called polycarbonate, so it shows up everywhere--in CDs, water bottles, even eyeglasses.
Now it's in your urine, too. And if you're a guy, it's messing with your hormones.
Researchers at the School of Biosciences at the University of Exeter in the UK have found an association between BPA (Bisphenol A) and higher levels of testosterone, proving a link that up until now has only been decisively shown in lab animals.
The new study, published this month in Environmental Health Perspectives, looked at hundreds of men in Italy who had volunteered to donate blood and urine samples.
Out of all these men of all ages, 98 percent had some level of BPA in their urine.
"And as soon as you see something in 98 percent of the population, you think, 'That could be a health risk,'" said Tamara Galloway, the lead author of the study.
Photograph by Ana Meza/MyShot
Galloway's group's previous work with BPA has established links between exposure to the chemical and cardiovascular diseases, and diabetes. But the chemical had long been suspected to also act as an endocrine disruptor; that is, something that mimics or blocks hormones in the body.
The men who excreted the most BPA through their urine also had the highest amount of testosterone in their blood.
BPA passes through the body "rapidly and completely," according to the study. But because BPA is so ubiquitous, the damage is through a low level of constant exposure, so even as "old" BPA is flushed out, we're ingesting more of it. "everything we've seen suggests that there's a low level of consistent exposure," Galloway said.
Getting Rid of BPA
In an unrelated study, researchers have been working on ways to degrade BPA-containing plastic without releasing BPA into the environment.
Mukesh Doble, a professor in the Indian Institute of Technology's biotech department, and his colleagues exposed sheets of polycarbonate to UV light and then inoculated them with white-rot fungus. The researchers were able to partially decompose the plastic with no release of harmful BPA. The fungus isn't exactly feeding on the BPA, Doble said, but "this fungi breaks it into pieces, so whatever is coming out is not exactly a BPA molecule." Left alone without the white-rot fungus, the plastic will be attacked by bacteria that eventually do break it down, but release BPA into the environment during the process, Doble explained.
Instead, using Doble's technique, the UV light "pretreats" the plastic, making it easier for the mold, used commercially for bioremediation all over the world, to grow. Combined, they made for the best and fastest plastic killer.
The solution isn't a quick fix: after a year, the plastic was only about 6 percent degraded. Doble estimates it would take about 20 years to break down the entire thing. And until a plastic treatment plant based on the scientists' findings opens up near you, your only option to get rid of your bottle is to dump it in the trash. Most municipalities don't accept #7 plastics for recycling.
Many companies, prompted by health concerns, have been phasing out polycarbonate in favor of other plastics. But BPA is still found in some food storage containers, baby bottles, the linings of metal cans, and in all sorts of non-food related uses, so it'll be with us for a long time. Even if we do let it rot.
--Rachel Kaufman |
RSS  |