Note that if you purchase something via one of our links, including Amazon, we may earn a small commission.
Reducing speed on our roads significantly reduces carbon emissions and adds just seconds to your commute.
Dear Reader,
Today’s Just One Thing is so simple you’re going to wish you’d been doing it forever … but you can start today.
The What: Slow down. That’s it. When you’re driving, obey the speed limit.
The Why: According to a University of Minnesota study (cited in The Anthropocene), “If drivers of gasoline cars refrained from speeding, they would collectively save an average of 57,000 metric tons of carbon emissions every day in the United States — while spending less than a minute more behind the wheel.” And while the reduction in fuel consumption per vehicle is just 2.4-3%, depending on the time of year, “across the United States, that all adds up to an annual fuel savings equivalent to taking about 5.5 million passenger cars off the road.”
The How: Obey speed limits. It really is that straightforward. The conclusion came from studying and analyzing a database of more than 120 million actual trips made by light-duty vehicles such as cars, SUVs, and pickup trucks across the United States to determine how often and how fast drivers speed. The analysis, said study lead William Northrop, a professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Minnesota, “proceeds from a simple and well-known proposition: driving fast is disproportionately energy intensive, as drag force increases exponentially with speed and the engine burns more and more fuel. That’s physics.”
The More: It’s not just gas-powered vehicles that would burn less fuel and emit less carbon. “This investigation showed that obeying speed limits would yield small but collectively significant savings for EV drivers too: a single day’s savings of 195 megawatt hours of electricity could power 82 EVs for an entire year.”
And here’s a bonus Just One Thing, courtesy of Daily Dot reader Heidi Howell, who wrote, “I live in a senior residence and THREE TIMES A DAY they fill water jugs at our dining tables. Most often, the water is not consumed, so I have placed 3–4 large buckets outside the kitchen doors and asked the kitchen service staff to empty the water jugs into the buckets. Then I and two other gardeners use the water to water our flowers, herbs, and vegetables in our courtyard. It is a relatively small area, but we do grow tomatoes, peppers, beans and radishes.”
Thanks for the water-saving tip, Heidi. Do you have a Just One Thing to share with Daily Dot readers? Let us know.
Slowly,
Dot
For more Bluedot Climate Quick Tips, click here.
