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Transportation

In your cars...

• Keep your car engine well-tuned.
• Drive a fuel-efficient car that uses unleaded gas.
• If you change your own oil, be sure it gets recycled.
• Buy high-mileage tyres and maintain proper air pressure (check once a month).
• Take old tyres to a tyre recycling centre or patronize a tyre dealer who recycles old tyres.
• Request remanufactured replacement parts for your car.
• When servicing your car's air conditioner, make certain the CFCs are contained and recycled.
• Drive more slowly -- a car travelling 55 mph rather than 65 mph burns less petrol.
• Walk, bicycle, carpool or use public transportation when possible.
• Don't let your car idle unnecessarily.
• Keep fuel filters clean.
• Don't haul around unnecessary weight in your car.
• Buy an efficient car just large enough for your needs and avoid light trucks (4WDs, minivans, and utes) - they use 30% more petrol and generate 30% more global warming pollutants.
• Buy a used car rather than a new one. 25% of an automobile's overall environmental impact, and 40% of the energy consumed, occurs during its manufacture.
• Walk, cycle or take the bus or train.
• When buying a home consider one near to your workplace or public transport.
• Cars and light trucks cause the highest amount of environmental damage overall - nearly half of the toxic air pollution and more than a quarter of the greenhouse gases traceable to household consumption.
• Reduce Petrol Usage
• Avoid rapid acceleration - a car under full acceleration can use 10 times the amount of power as a car quietly motoring at 40km/h. Studies show that individual driving habits can influence fuel consumption by as much as 25%.
• Only put the roof-rack on when there are items to carry - it increases wind drag causing increased petrol consumption. 
• Leave windows up at high speeds - open windows decrease the aerodynamics.
• In travelling 100 kms, the average, well-tuned car will emit 28 kgs of carbon dioxide (a major greenhouse gas), 10 kgs of carbon monoxide (a poisonous and greenhouse gas), 1.5 kg of hydrocarbons and 0.3 of nitrogen oxides (which cause smog), and 37 grams of benzene and other cancer-causing substances!