Commute
The average US household has two-mid-sized vehicles, which emit upwards of 20,000 pounds of CO2 every year.[1] This costs the average household approximately 18 percent of its income, which is more than the amount spent on food.[2] Twenty-seven percent of total vehicle miles traveled by Americans are to and from work, which amounts to 734 billion miles each year.[2] Seventy-eight percent of those who commute to work do so solo.[2] In fact, American workers spend an average of 47 hours stuck in rush hour traffic every year, adding up to 3.7 billion hours and 23 billion gallons of gas consumed.[3] Twenty percent of US greenhouse gas emissions comes from vehicle gasoline consumption.[2]
By choosing less-polluting methods for getting to work, such as walking, running, cycling, carpooling, or taking public transit, many Americans are significantly decreasing the time, money, and fossil fuels they use. For instance, 30,000 commuters can get to work on a single subway train, which would require 10 additional highway lanes if the same individuals chose to drive to work.[4] If 10 percent of Americans used public transit every day, the US would decrease its reliance on foreign oil by 40 percent.[5] If public transit ridership doubled, an additional 1.4 billion gallons of gasoline—equivalent to the volume of more than 2,100 Olympic swimming pools—would be saved each year.[6][7]
Related health issues
Research has shown that employees who walk or cycle to work (15 minutes or more per day) reduce the risk of heart attack by 50 percent.[8]
Footnotes
- Environmental Defense - Cars: Pollution Solutions in Reach
- Best Workplaces for Commuters - Basic Information
- Bikes Belong Coalition - Fast Facts
- Ideal Bite - Want to get away for Labor Day weekend but hate the thought of all that traffic?
- TreeHugger - How to Green Your Public Transportation
- ICF International - Public Transportation and Petroleum Savings in the US
- World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) - Methods, Compositions and Devices for Maintaining Chemical Balance of Chlorinated Water
- North Lankshire Council - Green Office: Transport




Comments
2:38pm
on the carpooling front, it helps to create a google doc (or other form of shared doc) in the office of people who are willing to carpool. everyone can put in their current commute and find a match in their office. this can also help employees to publicly display how many miles they used to commute and how many miles they commute now... if people care, it can quickly become a mini green battle in the office where everyone wants to go as low as possible :)
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