The Whaingaroa Environment Centre is proud to promote the practice of Car Pooling within our community.
If you observe the cars driving in and out of town in the morning and evening hours,
you’ll notice that a huge number of them contain just the driver.
If more people travel together, there will be a significant reduction of transport related pollution
and an improvement in overall transport fuel efficiency. Taking into consideration rising petrol prices,
ongoing car maintenance and parking fees, drivers can potentially save hundreds of dollars as well as
helping to reduce traffic congestion and fuel emissions.
When two people share the driving, petrol expenses are halved. If more people car-pool, the benefits are even more spectacular.
Studies in the UK have shown that if half the number of motorists received a lift just one day a week,
congestion and pollution would be reduced by 10%, and traffic jams by 20%!
The following link will direct you to CarShare.co.nz
This is a national Car Pooling website that our community can utilise. It's a fantastic resourse, it's FREE so please lets
get organised and make a positive difference!!
Facts and Figures on Whaingaroa Car Usage:
Whaingaroa Environment Centre is supporting car pooling and would like to see more use being made of the national car sharing web site,
CarShare.co.nz.
For those who prefer to talk to someone, the Centre will be pleased to see those with spare car seats, or who want spaces to share – call in at the old Town Hall, or phone 825 0480.
Car pooling can save commuters around
$100 a week and reduces congestion on the road and in car parks, but the Centre’s main concern is global warming.
Petrol burns to form carbon dioxide, which adds to global warming. We are seeing the results in more frequent weather extremes and melting ice caps leading to rising sea levels.
A study in the Southern Alps suggests over 200 species could be lost in the next 100 years due to climate change. Natural bush and other ecosystems absorb carbon,
thereby removing it from the atmosphere and offsetting carbon dioxide emissions. Trees use the green chlorophyll in their leaves to photosynthesise some of that carbon dioxide into timber,
but not at the speed at which we are pumping it out!!!
An average car making one round trip to Hamilton uses about 9 litres of petrol, which is enough CO2 to feed 3 full grown trees for a whole year. Last February a traffic count measured 4702 vehicles per day on the Main St
and traffic on the state highway 23 is now about
5400 a day. This daily emmission will take
21 square Km of Trees, one whole year to process!!
The bush on Karioi just happens to be about 21 square kilometres.
Can anyone calculate how much more bush we'd need to plant in the Catchment to be able to
process the emmissons from our vehicles the other 364 days of the year??
So how about we
Get in the pool and save the planet!!!
For more info on fuel and efficiency click on the following link to
