Solution to Oil Crisis? Drive like a Slacker.
Today’s Times has 10 short essays about how to deal with $4 gas (here in LA I’ve seen $5+ per gallon — talk about a place with inelastic demand). One of the more interesting pieces is from my friend Tom Vanderbilt who has a book coming out titled, “Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do.” His solution? In a nutshell, Slackonomics, i.e. use less fuel by slowing down. Various methods have proven effective, such as real-time fuel consumption information (as the Prius provides), traffic circles that slow people down, and others. The salient point, however, is this: “An Australian study found that ‘aggressively’ driven vehicles saved a mere five minutes over a 94-minute course compared to a ’smoothly’ driven vehicle — but the smooth car used 30 percent less fuel.” Keep in mind, I’m not arguing we can save the world by becoming lay-about stoners. Au contraire. I’m a pretty aggressive New Yorker myself. But the premise of Slackonomics is that economic circumstances may very well point the way towards finding a little bit of peace and happiness in our everyday lives — in this case, an attempt to reduce gas consumption forces us to be a little less aggressive and a little more magnanimous with our fellow travelers (be they drivers, cyclists or pedestrians).
UPDATE: Tom writes in with this, “I certainly hadn’t thought of it that way, but it makes sense! Slower speeds are good for your health too, of course, not just blood pressure but crash risk.”