Car-less and Bible Black*

I know people who love to drive. I can understand that. That sense of power and motion, of eating up the miles, of seeing new landscapes from behind glass while some track plays on the stereo. Volkswagen capture the magic of it beautifully on that new tv advert about driving at night. It uses the magnificent soundtrack of Richard Burton reading Under Milk Wood, for which alone it’s worth watching.

The ad ends with the line, “When was the last time you just went for a drive?”

In my case, not recently, because I don’t have a car.

Anyway, the ad has infuriated a friend of mine who has complained to the Advertising Standards Authority about encouraging such wastage at a time of global warming. I don’t know how I feel about taking such a hair-shirt view of the world. I probably should agree with him; if car use at current levels is unsustainable, to use cars simply for pleasure is a ridiculously unaffordable luxury. But I don’t want to wake up one day and find I’ve become a frothing eco-Stalinist.

I did, however, experience some put-them-up-against-a-wall thoughts when I heard on this morning’s news that someone has ordered a whole new A-380 Airbus just , “for personal use for him and his entourage”. A 600-seater aeroplane is a hell of an entourage. The biggest entourage I could put together would fit a six-seater Cessna. OK, a four-seater then. The irony is that it’s inevitably some oil baron. They’re the only people who could afford such a preposterous purchase.

In the mean time, for people who do drive, can I commend this list of top ten ways to cut your petrol consumption, put out by the Energy Saving Trust, which work just as well at night as they do in the daytime:

1. Check your revs - change up before 2,500rpm (petrol) and 2,000rpm (diesel).

2. Anticipate road conditions and drive smoothly, avoiding sharp acceleration and heavy braking. This saves fuel and reduces accident rates.

3. Use air conditioning sparingly as it significantly increases fuel consumption.

4. The most efficient speed depends upon the car in question but is typically around 55 - 65mph. Faster speed will greatly increase your fuel consumption.

5. Drive away immediately when starting from cold - idling to heat the engine wastes fuel and causes rapid engine wear.

6. Accessories such as roof racks, bike carriers, and roof boxes significantly affect your car’s aerodynamics and reduce fuel efficiency, so remember to remove them when not in use.

7. Avoid short journeys - a cold engine uses almost twice as much fuel and catalytic converters can take five miles to become effective.

8. Plan your journeys to avoid congestion, road works and getting lost.

9. Check your tyre pressure regularly - under-inflated tyres are dangerous and can increase fuel consumption by up to 3%.

10. If you’re stuck in a jam, switch the engine off if you expect to be there for more than a minute or two. Cutting the engine will save fuel and reduce emissions.

* Terrible headline which makes no sense at all but tries to link Dylan Thomas with… Oh never mind.

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This entry was written by Nigel and posted on Wednesday, June 20th, 2007 at 10:54 am and filed under Energy saving tips, It ain't easy being green, Saving energy, Media, Co2 emissions, Carbon footprints. Bookmark the permalink. You can follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Post a comment, or trackback from your own site.

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