One way to help reduce the global warming of our beloved earth is by finding ways to save money and at the same time stay healthy and also be more eco-friendly. With the massive traffic jam that keeps growing day by day, loss of time due to rush hour problems, high gas prices, car park expenses, plus also high maintenance cost of vehicles. In order to be green in your style of commuting daily, below are some of the things that you can do in becoming green commuter.
What you need to go green when commuting
- Walk or ride bicycle
- Do bulk errands in a single trip
- Organize carpool
- Shut off car engine when not in use
- Do schedule maintenance of your car accordingly
- Use public transportation
- Telecommute or work from home
- Change to Hybrid car
How to go green when commuting
- First of all, you can either choose to walk or ride a bicycle whenever you can especially if the place that you are going is considered not that far to your place.
- This is one of the ways of going green that can help the environment and also make yourself healthier because by walking or cycling, it helps to provide a good workout for your body. Other than that, this type of method reduces the emission of carbon output into the environment.
- Apart from that, if the need still arises for you to drive your car, for example, to do some errands, you can plan to do one week’s task in a single trip so that you can save a lot on fuel consumption.
- You can accomplish this by making a list of the items that you need to do for that particular week and organize it within a day to enable all of the tasks to be done in a single trip.
- You can also drive your car according to the speed limit and do not accelerate you car above the speed limit of the area. By driving every 5 miles an hour with at least 55mph consistency will reduce 10 percent of your fuel efficiency.
- If one of your colleagues live around the area that you live in or nearby your house, you can regularly take part in the carpool activity between each other in commuting to the office. Thus, this will reduce the number of cars entering the town area or your office area.
- Always make sure not let your engine idle for more than 30 seconds because if you shut the vehicle’s engine off, it will definitely be more fuel-efficient and reduces emissions of carbon into the environment and people will not be breathing the bad air from your vehicle fumes.
- Ensure that your car is always maintained according to its schedule because under-inflated tires, dirty air filters, and neglecting to change your engine oil can all cause your car’s gas mileage to plunge. For a normal regular maintenance, car engine oil, fluids and also its air filters needs to be changed at least every 3,000 or up to 5,000 miles in order to see that your car is always in good condition.
- Besides that, you can also use public transportation because this mode of transportation costs less than driving your own car into the city. Although the task seems to be quite daunting, once you have master all those schedules and know the routes, it will be a breeze in the future.
- You can always try to do this slowly for example, use the bus or train (especially hybrid buses and electric trains) one day in a week, or just follow your friend (green commuter) who is already familiar with the transportation route.
- Apart from that, using public transport also provides you with ample time of doing some reading while waiting or even do your job earlier because nowadays, some trains and buses even offer Wi-Fi connectivity which enables you to check email or browse the internet during your waiting period or during the journey.
- If your company allows you to do your work from home, you must take that opportunity of working from home which is also known as telecommute (especially if your work involves a computer or the internet, and it really helps you and also the environment.
- This is because you do not have to produce carbon output into the environment and managed to keep one car out of the massive traffic jam. According to the statistics, in 2004 alone up to 44 million Americans telecommute or at least working part time.
- If you can afford or having budget to change your car, it is recommended that you change to Hybrid cars because this type of cars is a revolution for the current era and it helps a lot in the going green concept.
- The Hybrid car also provide better gas mileage and give lower emissions. Besides that, you should also consider to use vehicle that uses bio-diesel or vegetable oil as alternatives to gas or petrol in order to save the environment.