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In a vehicle

When using a vehicle, there are many ways to reduce your emissions and save money on fuel costs, ranging from small easy steps to bigger changes.

Make the best vehicle choice

If you are considering purchasing a new car, choose a vehicle that meets your regular-use needs and then compare fuel efficiencies within that category. In the Lower Mainland, the average car will be on the road for about 20 years so your choice will have a long-term impact. Rent or carshare for those occasions when you need extra or special capacity.

It's more fun with more people - Rideshare (aka carpool)

Check out Jack Bell's Rideshare online ride-matching database. It's a free matching service for individuals with similar travel patterns. It only takes a minute to find out if there's someone taking the same route as you.

Or consider a formal car or van-pool. The Jack Bell Rideshare (JBF) offers a rideshare program that provides vehicles and requires riders to pay a monthly fare. JBF carpools are a subsidized form of transportation that use the users' fares to cover all the vehicle operating costs, while BC Transit and TransLink provide administrative funding for the program.

Why own a car when you can use just one? Try sharing

How often does your vehicle sit? Considering fuel, maintenance, insurance and depreciation costs, owning a vehicle can be expensive. In Vancouver two companies - Modo and ZipCar - rent out vehicles by the hour to members. Typically once you've paid the small monthly or annual membership fee, then you generally only pay for the hours and distance that you actually use! Other than the cost benefits, you can change the type of vehicle as needed (i.e. a cute Mini to go shopping or a truck for moving) and you don't have to worry about maintenance. This is often a great option for two-car families considering downsizing.

Leave your car at home - try it One Day a week

This is the easiest way to reduce your greenhouse gas emissions. Try doing your banking online, ask your employer about opportunities for telecommuting, combining trips or taking other forms of transportation.

Participate in Car Free Day each June. Wondering what its all about? Watch a video clip of the 2008 event.

Check for AutObesity

Clogged transportation arteries, bloated carbon footprints, difficulty breathing, muscular weakness and atrophy, dependence, addiction, accidents, injury, and malnourished wallets are just a few of the symptoms of  the plague of AutoObesity throughout Metro Vancouver.

Visit this website to find out if you are AutoObese, check out the BEST Car Diet and get yourself AutoFit.

Be idle free

Unnecessary idling wastes fuel, pollutes the air, contributes to climate change and fouls your engine. In Vancouver, idling while parked has been against the law since July 18, 2006. City bylaw enforcement officers can issue $50-$100 tickets for violators who idle longer than three minutes while parked. Check out Idlefree.ca or IdleFree BC for more information.

Drive smarter

  • About 50% of the fuel consumed in city driving is used during acceleration. Accelerate gently and steadily and anticipate traffic
  • Don't speed. Since wind resistance increases exponentially with speed, maintaining highway speeds of 90km/hr rather than 120km/hr can reduce fuel consumption by up to 20%
  • Drop extra weight. Avoid carrying non-essential heavy items such as tools and sports equipment. Extra weight requires more fuel
  • Use air conditioning sparingly
  • Reduce wind resistance. Roof racks and open windows at highway speeds will increase drag, decreasing efficiency of today's aerodynamic vehicles
  • Check out the Fuel Efficient Training Program by The Environmental Youth Alliance. Most who take the training reduce their fuel use by 10%

Keep your vehicle in shape

  • Perform monthly fluid level checks- oil, coolant, brake and transmission. Also watch out for cracked sparkplug wires, radiator hoses and loose clamps. Regularly check for fluid leaks under your car, test your brakes, and check your tire pressure
  • Change your oil. Most vehicles should have an oil-change every three months. Make sure you recycle the oil if you do it yourself
  • Keep your air filter clean. Clean filters improve fuel economy. Your engine needs clean air to operate properly and prevent damage. A dirty filter can increase fuel consumption by 10%. Read your service manual or see your mechanic for recommendations specific to your vehicle
  • Tune it up. A tune-up can improve how well your car runs, make it more fuel efficient and lower emissions. Many manufacturers recommend a tune-up every year or two. Your owner's manual or dealership should have a recommended schedule for your vehicle. Tune-ups can be booked with a local service centre, mechanic or dealership
  • For more information on proper vehicle maintenance, visit NRCan or BCAA

Keep your tires inflated

Check your tires monthly, it's free! Tire pressure is important to any vehicle's smooth operation and efficiency. Vehicle manufacturers install a decal on the driver's door frame or fuel cap to show the recommended tire pressure. This is the number you should use for tire inflation. The pressure shown on the tire itself is not necessarily the right pressure for your car, rather it is the maximum safe pressure for that tire. To learn more about tire inflation, tire care check out Be Tire Smart by the Rubber Association of Canada.

Try biodiesel

Biodiesel is a non-toxic and biodegradable fuel made from such things as algae, waste cooking oil and animal fats. It is more or less socially and environmentally sustainable depending on its origin so it is important to ask how the fuel is sourced. Compared with conventional diesel, biodiesel fuel combusts better and produces fewer lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions, a major contributor to climate change. In fact, pure biodiesel produces 60-100% less GHG emissions than petroleum diesel. Biodiesel blends are a mixture of petroleum and biodiesel - B5 for example, is 5% biodiesel and 95% petroleum. You don't need to convert your diesel engine to run on biodiesel and you can switch between blends as desired. Research important maintenance information before using biodiesel.

For more information, check out Alternative Fuels by NRCan, Ethanol and Biodiesel, Going Beyond Oil by Canadian Renewable Fuels Association and the GreenFuels Map by BioFleet, to find out where biofuels are sold.

Let your old car rest in peace

If your vehicle is near the end of its life and has failed AirCare, you still have some options. The Scrap It Program will take your polluting car off the road and will give you incentives for your old clunker (valued at up to $750).

You can also report extreme polluting vehicles to Air Care professionals by dialing 604.435.SMOG

The world on your doorstep

The United Nations Environment Programme delves into the impacts of mobility globally. Check out their factsheet to learn actions that could put us on the right track, ideas that are being put into action, and where to find out more on this important topic.

 

Share a car

Zipcar

Amitis has the car for you - be it a stylish mini, an efficient hybrid or a spacious van. Amitis isn’t a used car salesperson, she's the marketing manager for ZipCar, a Vancouver carshare company. Both ZipCar and Modo have hundreds of cars and thousands of members who share the cost of car ownership – paying only when they actually use the vehicle. ZipCar members save huge amounts of money on the purchase, insurance, maintenance and operational costs of owning a car while having the convenience of a vehicle to suit their needs - the best of both worlds.

Under pressure

This spring a local parking authority teamed up with the City for a tire checking program. Attendants would check and properly inflate their customers’ tires for them while they were parked for the day. Did you know that properly inflated tires help your vehicle run more efficiently?  Properly inflated tires can save the average Canadian driver the equivalent of two weeks worth of gas annually.  So be tire smart!

Did you know?

An estimated 70% of Vancouver' vehicles have improperly inflated tires. An improperly inflated tire can reduce fuel economy, increase tire wear and could be a safety hazard.

Poor vehicle maintenance can result in up to 50% higher consumption of fuel, which is a lot of wasted money considering today's gas prices.

After ten seconds, idling uses more fuel than restarting.

The Canadian Automobile Association estimates that the annual cost of owning and operating a passenger vehicle is over $9,000.