What California’s Doing to Encourage Their Drivers to Help the Environment
When you think of the Golden State, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? Golden beaches? Tanned surfers? Chances are good that it’s not a crowded city overflowing with people and smog, but as the population on the west coast continues to grow that picture is becoming the reality rather than the ambiguous threat it was twenty or thirty years ago. Greenhouse gases, smog, emissions testing-all of these things are taking their toll on California’s environment. That’s why the California government’s doing their best to encourage their drivers to take a bite out of pollution.
How are they doing that? First and foremost, public transportation is both plentiful and readily available throughout most major urban areas of California. Studies show that public transport eliminates the use of over 400 million gallons of gas in west coast cities every year, making it easy for the city’s poor to get around in today’s recessed economy and taking a bite out of environmental crime at the same time. California residents are urged to take advantage of this readily available means of transport to get to and from work.
California also has the highest numbers in the country when it comes to the sale of hybrid cars. Hybrids like the Toyota Prius run on both gasoline and electric power. The cars have a battery attached to the engine designed specifically to give it the power boost it needs without having to burn excess fuel. The car accelerates on battery power blended with gas to extend the vehicle’s gas mileage (the Prius averages between 45 and 48 miles to the gallon, depending on whether you’re stuck in stop and go traffic or flying down the highways) making it a fiscally fit as well as environmentally fit choice for California drivers.
Speaking of fiscally fit, California has taken the concept of making environmentally smart financially smart even further by offering drivers of hybrids additional "perks" to go with their lower gas bills. In cities from the northern borders to Baja drivers of hybrids, other vehicles that get more than 45 miles to the gallon and those sporting the California Clean Air Vehicle decal park for free on the city streets. Area businesses have opened up their parking lots, giving these drivers prime spots as an incentive to stay behind the wheel of their hybrid, and some parking garages have even begun adding free charging stations for hybrid batteries.
Couple that with federal tax breaks and many California drivers feel as though they’re being bribed to buy a hybrid! The government just looks at it as a way of compensating for the high start-up costs of going green.
Anthony M. Peck is the Senior Developer, Software Project Manager, and Director of Business Development for QuoteScout.com. For more information about the benefits of driving a hybrid car in California, visit them on the web at http://www.QuoteScout.com.
Article Source: ArticleSpan
Nancy – GotSmog.com – The Pollution-Reducing Blog
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