Keeping a green eye on drivers
Devices in 400 Denver cars will measure lead-footed use of the gas and brake pedals and other fuel-burning maneuvers. The aim: to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
DENVER — Hundreds of drivers here will serve as guinea pigs in a test that's part sociology experiment, part environmental advocacy and part Driver's Ed 101.
It poses the question: When motorists see how their own aggressive driving burns gasoline, will they stop the tailgating, hard braking and speeding that increases their fuel consumption and contributes to greenhouse gas emissions?
Sponsored by EnCana Corp., the pilot program aims to quantify the relationship between bad driving and gas emissions, as well as to persuade drivers to change. Denver is the first test site.
"People will modify their behavior," predicted Larry Goldenhersh, president and chief executive of Enviance, a California-based company that developed the software for the program. "Frankly, the prospect of having this thing in my car has already modified my behavior."
Four hundred people -- 200 in the city fleet and 200 volunteers -- will have accelerometers installed in their vehicles that record every time they slam on their brakes, rapidly accelerate or take a corner too quickly.
Such behaviors decrease fuel efficiency 20%, Goldenhersh said. The goal of the program is to reduce emissions from each participating vehicle 20%.
Once the devices are installed, participants can visit a website and track how they're doing. In addition, monitors will be installed on the cars to give drivers real-time feedback, said David Armitage, chief executive of Denver-based Cartasite Inc., which manufactured the accelerators.
Rapid acceleration wastes fuel because it floods the engine with extra gas, causing the car to burn the excess. And when a driver rides the brake unnecessarily, the energy that was used to get the car up to speed has been lost.
"The slower we stop the car, the less energy we're throwing away," Armitage said.
Losing less energy to starts and stops is one reason cars tend to get better mileage on highways.
"You can't change what you can't measure," Armitage said. If drivers don't see the connection between their actions and the consequences, "we're not going to make a change."
Armitage said that when he started tracking his own driving, he noticed he braked suddenly more often than he realized. That's because he tended to glance at his BlackBerry while he drove, a habit he's since cut out, he said.
One volunteer is Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, who offered to put his own Ford hybrid and driving skills to the test.
