With the exception of a very few places in the United States, the majority of Americans’ day-to-day transportation is dependent upon the individual automobile. The layouts of our cities and towns have been designed and built almost to mandate the use of cars, especially as most have been built within the past sixty years. The options of walking, riding a bicycle, or using other self-powered means of transportation are thus impractical, impossible, or unsafe. The physical distances that we need to travel are often too great, and contemporary urban design and roadways usually cannot conveniently or safely accommodate biking and walking.
This is the as-built situation we have inherited—so we have to deal with it. Let’s define the scope of the issue at hand.
As individuals and owners of private vehicles, we know that a vehicle with a higher miles-per-gallon rating (MPG) is a more environmentally-friendly car. Less gasoline burned = less pollutants in the air. Simple. A higher MPG helps reduce the degree of reliance on a finite fossil-fuel resource—oil. Finally, a higher MPG reduces your car’s demand on your wallet. Again, simple.
You may have one vehicle, or maybe two, or maybe none. As individuals, we can make a difference with our selection of transportation. Every small decision is a contribution.
But let’s take a look at the basics of transit and the MPG discussion, and how it works. Better MPG is obtained by vehicles that:
- Are lighter in weight (requiring less energy to move themselves)
- Are more efficient in the production of necessary power (using less energy to move themselves)
- Rely on other energy sources than gasoline (an alternative for moving themselves)
- A combination of all of the above
A smaller, lightweight car with an efficient engine requires less energy to move itself than a heavier vehicle with a less efficient engine. A hybrid car uses a combination of fuel sources. The hybrid vehicles available in today’s market use a combination of gasoline and electric power. Today’s hybrid vehicles are quite advanced. Their technology allows them to recapture energy usually lost in braking and decelerating, producing and storing electrical energy for use at a later time. This is a very clever application of technology.
But even in a hybrid, we can’t forget the weight and overall efficiency of the vehicle’s power generation. The components used to produce the electrical power add weight to the vehicle, so it has to work a bit more to move itself.
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