A new Concept-the Man*MPG

So, I said I would get back to this. We all here about how we need to drive "greener" cars, and how vehichles need to be more fuel efficient, but I think that is half the problem. I think as drivers, we are being just plain inefficient in moving around. Think about it. I have a car, my wife has a car. My brother has a car, and his wife has a car. My Dad has a car, my mom has her own car. My little brother and his wifeeach have a car. So there you have it, out of 8 people there are 8 cars.

On top of that, we drive them daily, each to a different place. But here's the problem, I am not using my cars full potential. I think that is why it should be important to track and monitor Man*MPGs. Essentially, each person you have in the car is a "man" (or woman). If I drive my car to work, I get 25 MPG...which oddly enough, is 25 Man*MPG. However, if I were to drive my wife and I to work, I would get 50 Man*MPG. I can put up to 5 people in my car (6 if everyone in the back seat is less than 100 #s). That means, if I am being truly efficient, I should be getting 125 Man*MPG, and thats in the city, on the highway, I would be closer to 140 Man*MPG. My brother and his civic could get up to 190 Man*MPG.

Basically, if you want people to be greener you need to give them incentive. You can easily measure Man*MPGs with very little modifciation to your car (I won't spell it out, but I am sure Honda, Toyota, GM and the like could figure out how to do it for only pennies on your monthly payment). You should be able to track this, and at the end of the year, go to the DMV and have an official reading taken, and you could enter it on your tax form...it would be no different than getting a tax break for driving a hybrid and/or buying one. This would encourage car pooling which I think would greatly decrease emissions as well as traffic, and we all hate traffic. NOw the key here, is that you don't get penalized if you don't use the system, you just benefit more from using it.

I think even business that haul frieght and cargo could benefit from a system like this. Heck, right now, the railroad conglomerate CSX is boasting how they can hall 100 tons of freight 1 mile on 1 gallon of diesel...its the same thing...only different!

Hey, it's just a thought.