...curtail nonessential travel

ikendu

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I see that President Bush is asking people to "...curtail nonessential travel" in order to save gas while the refineries recover from hurricane damage.

Anyone planing to do that?

...car pooling?
...switching to a higher mileage car (if you have that choice)?
...cutting out non-essential travel?

I see on an EPA site from 1993 that they estimate that traveling at 55 mph instead of 60 mph will save about 10% on mileage.

http://www.epa.gov/otaq/consumer/car-env.pdf

I plan to stick strictly to the speed limit on my way to work. I travel on a state highway where the speed limit is 55 mph. However, almost always it moves along at 60 mph. On my 19 mile commute, traveling 55 instead of 60 will add less than 2 minutes to the total travel time. I wonder if people will feel good that the traffic is moving at 55 mph or will they be upset and irritated that someone is holding up everyone else?

When our President asks people to make a sacrifice for the national good, will people respond?
 

idleprocess

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I started traveling at the posted limit (60MPH) months ago and saw my fuel economy go from ~20MPG to ~24MPG. Not all that surprising on a vehicle with aerodynamics rivaling a brick.

Carpooling is out - noone in my area working my hours.

Mass transit isn't an option, since the last bus leaves 4 minutes before the end of my shift.

Curtailing non-essential travel I can do and started doing several weeks ago. I could use the exercise.
 

James S

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Well the thing that passes for a governor in this state closed the public schools today and I think tomorrow as well. Thereby saving something like 500k gallons of diesel fuel from all the busses or something.

Unfortunately it is costing probably 3 or 4 times that much in lost productivity, and extra gas usage of parents having to stay home from work and drive their kids places.

Penny wise and pound foolish.

People are really pissed, what are they supposed to do when they have an unannounced snow day in September?

And they will have to go to school an extra 2 days in the spring, so they are just offsetting the usage, not saving it anyway. It could be twice as expensive by then.

As far as me, I put off going to the grocery store today, otherwise with a 5 and a 1 year old we dont take trips for fun ;)
 

KC2IXE

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ikendu said:
...snip...

Anyone planing to do that?

...car pooling?
...switching to a higher mileage car (if you have that choice)?
...cutting out non-essential travel?

...snip...

Not really, as I pretty much already do that - other than the 1.25 miles to/from the train every day, for both my wife and I (total 5 miles/day) just about the ONLY times the cars and/or truck get used is to run to the stores and the like - I do < 6500 miles/year in the truck, and my wife went from 8k/year to about 4k/year when she changed jobs. We both predominately use mass transit, except when going on LONG trips (yesterday I went on a 250 mile round trip that I make about 3x/year) OR when we are moving "stuff" - groceries, etc, etc
 

gadget_lover

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PhotonWrangler said:
Ummmm, isn't this the same administration that gave huge tax breaks to small business owners for purchasing SUVs with a minimum GVW?

No, it's the one that just flew a 747 and all it's support teams to texas to "see for himself" what we've seen on TV for the last 3 weeks. How many gallons per second does that burn? 7 gallons per mile at 550 miles per hour.... That's about about a gallon per second??????
( Figures from http://www-personal.engin.umich.edu/~murty/planetravel2/planetravel2.html and I hope the math is right. )

That's not bad when you have the planned 350 passengers that a 747-200 is designed for. AF1 has a fraction of that many people.

Even if you add the "increased efficiency" of all the reporters and other hangers on that travel with the pres, it's still a 100% un-necessary trip. He does not even bring any disaster relief supplies.


This is not a bush rant. It's a rant against every politician who uses public resources inappropriately. Clinton, Bush, Carter and all the rest had many junkets that had no purpose other than political. I just find it even more galling when it happens in times of human suffering.


Sorry about the rant. On topic, I'm not planning any nonessential travel.
 

PhotonWrangler

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gadget_lover said:
It's a rant against every politician who uses public resources inappropriately. Clinton, Bush, Carter and all the rest had many junkets that had no purpose other than political. I just find it even more galling when it happens in times of human suffering.

Spot on there. Even the evening news was calling it a trip for political reasons as much as seeing for himself. For all the money and gas that was spent there, he could at least have dropped off some pop tarts, batteries and water.

BTW, I haven't taken any nonessential trips in a good while, nor do I have any immediate plans to do so.
 

jtr1962

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The beauty of this is that for me I really don't have to change a thing. I run just about all my errands walking. I work at home. I need to take public transit maybe 10 to 20 times a years. And I flew exactly once in my life with no plans to ever fly again. Once in a blue moon I need to bum a car ride if a store is too far to walk to and too out of the way for public transit.

In the spirit of saving energy I promise I won't ride my bike faster than 55 mph. :D
 

matt_j

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Yeah switched from taking my car in 4 times a week to just taking it once a week. The rest is just good old train commute. It sucks a bit because it adds on time and I have to change into my uniform at work instead of at home and carry bigger bag but instead of blowing $50 on a tank of gas a week I manage to go around with $12. I always loved public transportation but at hours I get to work trains are not running that frequently.
 

IsaacHayes

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ikendu said:
...switching to a higher mileage car (if you have that choice)?
My car has 186,000miles on it. Is that high enough? :grin2:

Well I'm not going shack up at home and only venture out when I've ran out of food like it's a warzone outside... BUT... I do try to plan my trips so when I go to several stores for stuff it's all in a row one after each other and not back tracking across town to go to the next place. I do this to save gas & time for myself anyways...
 

paulr

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I do think of getting a hybrid as my next car, but it won't be for a while. I have a Honda Civic 5 speed which I don't drive very much, so 37mpg isn't bad.

I do plan a cross country (airplane) trip but not too much driving over there either. Will probably do some bus or train travel on the other coast. Both of those are very fuel efficient.
 

ikendu

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By The Way... I saw on the news this morning that the very night that President Bush had asked Americans to cut back on driving, he went out to dinner at a location 5 miles from the White House with the entire Secret Service staff in tow (4 or 5 SUVs worth of folks).

What? Was the White House kitchen fridge empty? No ham for a ham sandwich?

This is setting a good example for people in America to save on gas?

BTW (also)... I noticed on my state highway this morning that I wasn't the only person going 55. Maybe other people heard "the call" and decided to help out too (whether the President will do his part or not).
 

BentHeadTX

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I rode my bike to work today!
Uhhh, wait a minute... I have been riding my bike to work since May 2001 and got into the habit.
The last time I purchased gasoline was the 6th of June of this year... it was $1.83 a gallon. For now, I just plug in my 1000W brushless motor modded scooter (with LED lighting) I think the cost to charge it is 2 cents per charge so it works for me. I call it "The Adana Pickup" when I hook the trailer up to it and pull a load of groceries from the store.
Was reading how the Prez wants to give tax breaks to oil companies to build more refineries. Uhhhh..., those are the same people making billions in profits by not building refineries. Talk about a win-win situation!
The way things are going, I expect the states to be in the crapper by the time I return in June 2007. I think we need to curtail nonessential politicians.
 

Malpaso

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Ride the Harley to work as often as possible. Of course, I do that anyway. Now I can feel like I'm helping the country when I do it.
 

Darell

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ikendu said:
I see that President Bush is asking people to "...curtail nonessential travel" in order to save gas while the refineries recover from hurricane
Well... since most of my travel time, and ALL of my non-essential travel is is accomplished via bicycle... and when I'm in my car on the freeway I'm not burning gasoline anyway - I'm not sure I'm willing or even capable of complying. :thinking:

I think we need to curtail nonessential politicians.
ah... this is BEAUTIFUL! Can you just imagine how much energy we'd save if this could happen?
 
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zespectre

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I've been dealing with a deterorating and overloaded public transit system for 10 years now (Washington DC Metro). I'm thinking of making a switch to a damn Segway or something because the crowding on the transit system is completely out of hand (breakdowns and other issues aside)
 

PaulW

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The folks in the Washington DC area haven't slowed down. Yesterday I took a trip on I-270, where the speed limit is 55 mph. I set the cruise control on 65, and most cars AND TRUCKS were passing and weaving around me. (No, I was not in the left lane.) :)

Paul
 

stringj

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As a test, two tankfuls of diesel ago I performed my own experiment. I drove either the speed limit (if it was slower) or 60 mph. My mileage went up to 54 mpg and I went 981 miles before refueling. The next tank I went back to driving 70 mph and my fuel mileage dropped back to 45 mpg. I am now trying 65 mph but will not go back to 60 mph driving. Driving 60 mph was too stressful what with watching all the other drivers almost running over me. If the President was really serious, he'd lower the speed limit. I wouldn't like it anymore than the last time they did this, but at least we would know he was serious.

Jerry
 
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