If you can’t ditch your car, you’re not alone. But there are things you can do to clean up your gas usage.
This challenge is in partnership with Levi's ®
Global warming is getting worse, and so are our commutes. The 2010 American Community Survey showed that in 2009 the number of commuters driving alone increased half a percentage point to 76.6 percent, a total of about 100 million people. Meanwhile, the percentage who took public transportation slightly decreased to 4.9 percent.
Of course, you already know some of the easiest ways to help curb pollution. Carpool. Take the bus. Take the metro. Bike to work at least once a week and get fit in the process. (The first few days on the road can be intimidating, but follow a few simple tips and confidence will follow.) Or make your other car an electric bike. Walk, and enjoy some spring air. Our December human infographic on traffic in Los Angeles showed how much better traffic flow would become if just 3 percent of the city’s drivers switched to taking public transportation or biking to work.
If you can’t ditch your car, you’re not alone. There are 808 cars for every 1000 people in the U.S, second only to Monaco. Transportation counts for 28 percent of America’s total energy use, and the average car only travels 22.5 miles per gallon. Twenty percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States come from transportation. And one gallon of gasoline takes nearly 13 gallons of water to produce, so you may be inadvertently using more than 500 gallons of water every time you fill up. But there are things you can do to clean up your car’s gas usage:
To learn more about how you can save water every day, click here and take the Water<Less Challenge.