Easy Peasy Tip: No, really. Inflate your tires!
By tinychoices | August 9, 2008
There’s been a lot of hubbub recently about the worth of making sure your tires are inflated to the proper pressure. If you haven’t been paying attention: Barack Obama suggested that we all inflate our tires to the manufacturers recommended pressure, and that by doing that we would save more gasoline than would be gained by off-shore drilling. And John McCain thought this was hilarious, apparently, and started handing out tire pressure gauges at his rally’s. (And then, apparently, reversing his position.)
Here at Tiny Choices we don’t want to talk politics. But we do want to talk Stupid. And you know what? Obama is right. If you inflate your tires to the correct pressure you will probably save 3% in fuel efficiency. Karina talked about it almost exactly a year ago! Time Magazine has a breakdown here that indicates that yes, if we all saved 3% of gasoline a year it would totally make up for any oil that would be drilled in off-shore endevors.
Also, it is so obvious that this is an attempt to paint the tire pressure as Obama’s Jimmy Carter moment. Dudes, haven’t we moved past this fear of conservation? Let’s just inflate our tires properly and stop kvetching about it. Or if you’re going to really kvetch about it, Karina swears by these blinky tire valve caps to make sure her tires are inflated properly. How about handing THEM out at rally’s?
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Photo from flickr user ~Phil Moore via creative commons license.
Topics: Easy Peasy Tips | 15 Comments »
Politics! It is so interesting when there are simple solutions, and then people without real knowledge of the great impact will poo poo a perfectly great idea. The cool part of what Obama was saying is the we all make a difference, when we do it together it makes a HUGE difference, and really he is expresssing the idea i love most – community on a large scale- this is what will help the environment. Feeling like there is something we all can do, and together it will add up!
Why do people insist on mocking the obvious? Turn down the heat, put on a sweater, save oil. Inflate your tires properly, save gas. Set sail across the ocean and you won’t fall off the edge of the earth.
There has been this constant insistence that conservation requires sacrifice. Tiny things like inflating tires and putting on a sweater are so simple, and require no real sacrifice, but on a large scale have a huge impact.
At work I frequently deal with server performance problems, and there is always this belief a magic bullet will be found that solves the problem. There are rarely magic bullets, problems are solved by a lot of small adjustments adding up to a whole. I see a parallel with energy policy. Hydrogen will save us, natural gas will save us, wind, off shore drilling, bio fuels, etc etc etc.
There are no magic bullets. Lots of small changes will add up to a huge change from where we are today. When we attack a performance problem, we always hit the low hanging fruit first. The really simple stuff, obvious things people missed. Usually they are recommendations right in the installation guide. Kind of like the proper air pressure for a vehicle.
We can make huge changes by hitting the low hanging fruit as a nation. Oh, and I’ve pumped my tires up to 50 psi, made some minor changes to my driving and have seen a 30% increase in my fuel economy (over EPA, my real increase is even better).
great analogy!!
[...] Tiny Choices wants you to inflate your tires. [...]
Great post! And after we fill up our tires – get new spark plugs to further increase efficiency!
We got one of those fancy gadgets that monitors your efficiency in real time as you drive, and while we previously got 38-44mpg city & 46-48mpg highway in our diesel jetta, when we drove to MN from Chicago to camp for a week – we got an average of 52.5 mpg for the whole trip, just by altering our driving habits a bit, following some of the hypermiler’s tips. Score 1 for low hanging fruit!
And I love those blinky lights – I’m going to order those up next!
I just ad to comment on this. I found it disgusting that people were laughing at this. You might not see the relation, but I was talking to my friend about searching for organic jeans, and how I wish I could get them but I’m too poor ;P, and she practically laughed at me. “I’ve been through that phase” she said, rolling her eyes. By the way, it’s not true. She was talking about grade 6, when she was recycling everything and telling people not to litter. It seems like people think they have better things to think about than,oh, THE WORLD. It really put me down, and made me feel like I was being silly. But I know I’m not, thank you very much, Stephanie, and I’ll keep being an eco-nerd as long as I want (which is forever) >:P
My point is that people don’t seem to care, or even want to care, about the environment, and pass the small suggestions (that could save it) off as stupid, that they won’t make a difference.
Hey Katherine– we’re glad you’ve found fellow eco-nerds here at Tiny Choices! ‘Cause we sure are card-carrying ones, and proud of it. We’ve been known to be teased as well (in fact I was just telling Karina about this tonight) but, you know, to each their own. We’ll just keep on keepin on.
And, if you can’t afford organic jeans, how about a cool pair of reused ones? Vintage jeans have even less of a footprint than organic ones, since no new materials at all were used in their production. Plus, you’ll save a ridiculous amount of money at the same time.
Best,
Jenn
used jeans are hard to find since thrift stores have a tendency not to organize by size, but when you find them, they are AWESOME because they’re already worn and not super-stiff like the ones you buy at stores. (that is, unless you buy pre-worn-down jeans at the store… in which case you ought to be going to a thrift store anyway!)
*had
Sorry, typo :)
The reason we lampoon Obama for advising on tire pressure, is that its a drop in the bucket. He obviously can’t do the math. Most of us are taking steps to conserve, and that will buy us a slight reprieve. But that break will only last a few months, as overall growth in demand continues with the population expansion and industry.
New drilling will buy us more time to develop alternatives, and offset potential price hikes 6 years from now. And those alternatives will primarily address electrical generation, not motor fuels.
The world is not gong to stop binging on energy just because a few peaceniks tell everyone they must lower their carbon footprint (while not necessarily practicing it themselves. All of my left-wing friends seem to drive cars with v8′s, while my Conservative rear is on a bicycle.)
Thanks for checking in, motorman. I disagree that new drilling will buy time to develop alternatives (how can it buy time to develop alternatives when there will be no market pressures or incentives to do so, because everyone will be looking forward to the potential lower prices in 6 years as if there is no future of high energy prices?) but I 100% agree with your biking. don’t let a few individual lefty leadfoots skew the pool for you!
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