Green Road-Trips
 

Hi there;
I'm taking a road-trip this summer and want to make it as environmentally friendly as possible (unfortunately, my station wagon isn't a hybrid). Any ideas? Thanks!

- Make sure your tires are properly inflated. In fact, you can use more pressure (up to the maximum stated on the TIRE) than recommended by the owner's manual of the car. [But that may wear out your tires unevenly.]

- Don't use A/C. And close the windows.

- Drive the lowest possible safe speed. [This is tricky, and time consuming.]

- Draft behind big trucks. [That's a dangerous thing which I wouldn't do. The truck blows a tire and you're dead.] But stay at least far behind that you can see the trucker's mirror.

- Use the highest gear possible if you're driving a manual.

- Accelerate as gently as possible.

- Put car in neutral on downgrades. [Again, dangerous!]

- And of course, make sure your car is running in top form, with fresh motor oil and other fluids.

To get the best gas mileage, make sure your tires are properly inflated and the car is properly tuned, air filter clean, etc. Also, cars burn more gas when you speed, so try not to barrel down the road - although if you are going through Utah, Nevada, and so on, good luck in that - LOL. I don't think you can NOT speed through there.

To cut down paper and plastic waste, I limit my stops at fast food restaurants and take-out places. Instead I take a cooler and buy picnic foods for lunches on the road. I also bring a plate and set of utensils for each person - you can wash them up quickly at the hotel. I like to buy local produce and foods as much as I can.

I drink a lot of water, so I either bring reusable water bottles or buy bottled water and reuse the bottles several times before recyling them. Just refill from the tap - of if you must have bottled water, buy it in large jugs (less plastic per volume that way) and you can refill smaller, more convinient bottles that way.

Hmmmmm...that's pretty much all I can think of right now. Hopefully others have more ideas.

Oh - not road trip-specific, but when staying in hotels for more than 1 night, reuse your towels and sheets if you can. You can also bring clothes that can be worn multiple times before needing to be laundered - both save on water and energy use.

I'm all for green road trips, but I'm having a little bit of trouble making sense of your posts. You have asked, in rapid succession, four pretty mutually-exclusive or at least inconsistent questions about your summer vacation.

Are you (a) going to Europe, (b) trying to find an uncrowded, less-visited national park in the U.S., (c) looking for cheap flights to Yosemite, Sequoiza and Glacier NP (none of which is "uncrowded"), or (d) actually going to drive somewhere?

I've been posting on Wanderlust's first thread about un-touristy national parks. I wonder if he or she has been back to look?

What's up?