Carpool? What's stopping you?

This Times Opinion piece from Nicole Brodeur about Ride Share and how she made friends and saved gas by ride sharing is wonderful.

Excerpt:

The bonding truly came, though, on the way home, at the intersection of Jackson and 23rd: the state liquor store.

"Mind if I stop in here?" I asked, somewhat sheepishly.

"You know, I always drive past here, meaning to stop in... " she said.

We really didn't need to; we were both buzzing with the sense that Doing Our Part was not at all like a term paper, or back-country dentistry, or hell.

What took us so long?

What's taking you?

As Eddie Izzard Says... "Ciao!"

You could be riding around the city on a scooter saving massive gas mileage! This is another way to save money on gas, and have fun getting around. Scooting would let you take the HOV lanes on the freeway, but with some of the smaller scooters, I wouldnt' recommend it.

When people think of motorcycle commuting, it's important to remember that scooters and mopeds are ok too.

Gas Mileage Hacking

This article about people who drive a specific way to maximize gas mileage is pretty interesting. A lot of what they do are things we encourage here at IAST:

• "avoiding jackrabbit starts"


• "avoiding stop-and-go"


• "anticipating lights"


• "driving a bit more slowly"

A few we definitely don't support:

• slightly overinflated tires to cut rolling resistance


• drafting like race cars behind larger vehicles

The drafting idea is dangerous, because it is essentially tailgating behind the largest vehicles that have the hardest time seeing smaller cars. Tailgating is bad, but the other lessons are good ones, and with gas nearly $4 a gallon, we should all consider driving better to save gas. In the article:

“I do as few accelerations and brakings as possible to get up to speed and
maintain it,” he said. He ... avoids lane changes and coasts to red lights.

Sounds like our message exactly. Save money: Drive better!