Ecodriving and Carbon Footprinting: Understanding How Public Education Can Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Fuel Use

Details

• Creators:
  Shaheen, Susan A. ; Martin, Elliot W. ; Finson, Rachel S.
• Corporate Creators:
  Mineta Transportation Institute
• Corporate Contributors:
  California. Department of Transportation ; United States. Department of Transportation. Research and Innovative Technology Administration
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  • Greenhouse gases
  • Polluting gases
  • Greenhouse effect
  • Air pollution
  • Urban transportation
  • Urban transportation policy Greenhouse gases--United States
  • Atmospheric carbon dioxide--United States
  • Urban transportation policy--United States
• Publication/ Report Number:
  CA-MTI-12-2808
• Resource Type:
  Tech Report
• Geographical Coverage:
  California
• Edition:
  final report.
• Corporate Publisher:
  Mineta Transportation Institute
• Description:
  Ecodriving is a collection of changes to driving behavior and vehicle maintenance designed to impact fuel consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in existing vehicles. Because of its promise to improve fuel economy within the existing fleet, ecodriving has gained increased attention in North America. One strategy to improve ecodriving is through public education with information on how to ecodrive. This report provides a review and study of ecodriving from several angles. The report offers a literature review of previous work and programs in ecodriving across the world. In addition, researchers completed interviews with experts in the field of public relations and public message campaigns to ascertain best practices for public campaigns. Further, the study also completed a set of focus groups evaluating consumer response to a series of websites that displayed ecodriving information. Finally, researchers conducted a set of surveys, including a controlled stated-response study conducted with approximately 100 University of California, Berkeley faculty, staff, and students, assessing the effectiveness of static ecodriving web-based information as well as an intercept clipboard survey in the San Francisco Bay Area. The stated-response study consisted of a comparison of the experimental and control groups. It found that exposure to ecodriving information influenced people's driving behavior and some maintenance practices. The experimental group's distributional shift was statistically significant, particularly for key practices including: lower highway cruising speed, driving behavior adjustment, and proper tire inflation. Within the experimental group (N = 51), fewer respondents significantly changed their maintenance practices (16%) than the majority that altered some driving practices (71%). This suggests intentionally altering driving behavior is easier than planning better maintenance practices. While it was evident that not everyone modifies their behavior as a result of reviewing the ecodriving website, even small shifts in behavior due to inexpensive information dissemination could be deemed cost effective in reducing fuel consumption and emissions.
• Format:
  PDF
• Funding:
  DTRT07-G-0054
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/24239/dot_24239_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 2.43 MB]
• Collection(s):
  Transportation Resilience and Vulnerability Collection ; University Transportation Centers
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:716f19e9a1049e0c4da1e910b8dec34664f7a9f96c3e0ef8d70f22a5e9227ac1ea23912e2517bf9420bb3366e1ce171417199078db7adbf104a32909ef1a0bf2