Every year, we drive our vehicles millions of miles combined as a nation—together, we burn about 113.1 billion gasoline-equivalent gallons of fuel per passenger annually. Every mile represents more carbon dioxide and other air pollutants, more energy for maintaining roadways, and more energy for repairing and manufacturing our vehicles. It’s a pretty big toll on the environment.

Even if it’s not in the budget right now to purchase a new, more fuel efficient vehicle, there are many simple and inexpensive things you can do to improve the efficiency of your car, truck, or SUV. From removing excess weight in your trunk to maintaining your vehicle on a regular schedule—it all adds up to a more efficient ride, and of course cash savings, as well.

• Remove weighty items from your trunk to improve your mileage by 1-2 percent for every 100 pounds removed.
• For every 5 miles per hour you slow down on the highway, you’ll improve fuel consumption by 7 -23 percent and cut fuel costs by $0.17-$0.56/gallon.
• Stop idling your car and save $0.01/gallon for every two minutes your car is shut off.
• Drive less aggressively (foot lightly on the pedals) and you’ll raise your gas mileage by as much as 33 percent, saving you between $0.12 and $0.81 per gallon.
• Reduce the total number of miles you drive each month by combining trips or choosing alternative forms of transportation (walking or public transit, for instance). Reduce the total miles by 5 percent to save up to $65 yearly on gas costs.
• Remove your unused roof rack or carrier to improve fuel economy by 5 percent.
• Your car’s a/c unit will use the most energy when on the maximum setting. Turn it down to improve fuel efficiency by 5-25 percent.

Use a GPS navigation system to avoid traffic congestion and find the most efficient route to your destination to avoid waste fuel.

Traffic Jam Via Flickr - Hamed Saber

Best Workplaces for Commuters estimates that the daily commute wastes 2.3 billion gallons of fuel as people idle in traffic waiting for the way to clear. According to the Texas Transportation Institute, the cost in wasted time and fuel per commuter was approximately $750 in 2007, a total that amounted to $87.2 billion for the US as a whole.

While we like to encourage people to use alternate modes of transportation as much as possible (telecommuting, public transit, bicycling, waling, carpooling, etc.), it’s good news when we find ways to reduce the congestion and get people moving again. We’ve always assumed that GPS is one of those technologies that will cut down on fuel waste and time.

GPS Via Flickr - Jimmy_Joe

And now, according to a new NAVTEQ study published in August of this year (NAVTEQ is in the business of navigation, so these results should be taken with that in mind), traffic-enabled navigation systems will not only save people time, they’ll cut down on greenhouse gas emissions and wasted money. They estimate that portable, wireless navigation systems equipped with real-time traffic information could save the average US driver the equivalent of four days-worth of time (UK drivers save only 2.5 days). That’s because they can avoid traffic jams and therefore spend about 18 percent less time driving than those without navigation systems.

Greenhouse gas emissions also dropped by about 21 percent, or 0.79 metric tons (about 1,700 pounds) according to the study, which was conducted in Germany. In all, the research totalled data from 2,100 individual trips, logging over 20,000 kilometres (12,427 miles) over nearly 500 hours.

Google Maps for mobile

Systems like Google Maps for mobile are also helping, making real-time traffic information for all US cities available on GPS-enabled phones. The easier the daily commute, the better for us all.