Do it for Earth Day!
Use a GPS Tracking Device to Drive More Efficiently
Earth Day is a call for people all over the world to think about the impact each of us leaves on the environment. It has been 40 years since the United Nations General Assembly declared the international holiday.
Great strides have been made in the last several decades to reduce air pollution, but nature lovers believe that we are worse off than ever before.
One of the biggest culprits is humankind’s favorite mode of transportation: gasoline-powered motor vehicles. Automobile exhaust releases dangerous chemicals into the air, which create ground-level ozone (smog), contribute to global warming, damage human respiratory systems and destroy plant life.
Every effort to drive less, drive more efficiently or use alternative forms of transportation will collectively make a difference.
Mexico City Promotes Pedal Power
In Mexico City, municipal leaders are trying to replace automobile pollution with pedal power. Mayor Marcelo Ebrard supervised the launch this spring of Ecobici. More than 1,000 bicycles have been placed in about 80 pedestrian-heavy hubs throughout the city. Residents, tourists and business people can grab a bike and ride it for up to a half hour absolutely free. They can pick the bike up at one station and drop it off at another.
Documentation and management of the program is accomplished with user cards. Participants register and then swipe the cards at the bicycle rack. After they return their bikes, they have to wait at least 10 minutes if they want to continue with another one. If a bike comes back late, there is a nominal fee charged to the user’s account.
People have taken up the free offer more than 50,000 times so far and there have been no accidents and no thefts, said city officials.
GPS Tracking Reduces Gas Consumption
Free bicycles are a great incentive, but they will never wean us from more convenient, gas-guzzling vehicles. The solution here is to reduce consumption. We can cut the amount of exhaust that we belch into the air by carpooling and by buying hybrid cars, for example. And we can accomplish the same goal with GPS tracking systems.
GPS tracking systems are used by individuals, and by companies in fleet management, to reduce fuel costs by reducing the amount of gas that is burned. Vehicle tracking systems utilize satellite signals to show someone precisely where, when and how fast, a car, a truck, a van, even a piece of farm equipment, travels. Hundreds of tracking systems can be monitored on a map on a computer at the same time. Users that want to see the travel activity ‘live,’ and perhaps interact with the drivers, use real-time GPS tracking. A more cost-effective solution is passive GPS tracking, where the receiver is retrieved from the vehicle once it returns to home base and the travel data is downloaded to computer.
The fewer trips we take, the less miles we travel, the more stops or errands we can fit into a single outing, the less we speed and idle and get lost and backtrack; the less we visit the pump.
Another way vehicle tracking devices help the environment is allowing owners to keep to a regular vehicle maintenance and repair schedule. Just like with people, when a car gets regular check-ups, fewer problems are encountered down the line. Extending a vehicle’s life reduces the volume of solid waste we dump on the ground through scrap metal, glass, tires and plastics.
It’s a simple effort easily accomplished with GPS tracking technology: buy less gas, spend less time on the road and do your part to extend the life of Mother Earth.
Source: Bikes At Work Inc. , Associated Press
Tags: belch, Carpooling, cars, Earth Day, Ecobici, Fleet Management, Gas Consumption, GPS Tracking, hybrid, Mayor Marcelo Ebrard, Mexico City, Pedal Power, Strides
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