It would appear that people have started accepting periodic petrol and diesel price hikes as a fact of life. One cannot turn a Nelson’s eye to the variation of crude oil prices and maintain a rigid price level for petroleum based products. Political parties outside the ruling ones will say all sorts of things and trigger off demonstrations but realities cannot be ignored. Heavy subsidies cannot be maintained interminably.
The sensible thing to do is to try and save fuel in every possible way. I am quoting below a part from my post two years ago titled Tackling the oil crisis :
“What are the ways by which we can reduce oil consumption? The oft-repeated suggestions of avoiding unnecessary travel and organizing car pools are definitely effective. But there is more that can be done:
- Stop or reduce the use of air-conditioning on vehicles. The citizens should be willing to forgo some small comforts in the interest of the nation
- Improved driving techniques can save fuel. Two simple examples – (a) cold starting a vehicle in reverse consumes more fuel. Park the car front forward at night, and (b) maintaining a steady pace on highways instead of ‘speed and brake’ pattern saves fuel. There is much more.
- Traffic jams result in idling waste. Switch off the engine if you have to stop for more than a couple of minutes. Also, the concerned authorities should give more attention to streamlining the traffic.
- Good road surface increases fuel efficiency. Single lane roads, unscientific speed breakers and potholes result in vehicles guzzling up gas.
- At home, reduce the use of cooking gas. On each cylinder, the oil firms are absorbing Rs.306.
- Reduce petroleum based power production.”
Maintaining the vehicle in good condition is something I missed including in that list.
If everybody follows these simple suggestions, the total saving of petroleum products in the country would be considerable.
2 comments:
Thank you for useful tips, Mr. Abraham. I would like to add that we should consider walking for errand jobs nearby.Any work, say to post office, Bank, chemist, vegetable vendors, electricity office etc which does not involve more than half an hour's ( total) walk should be done without the use of vehicle. This can be a great saver of petrol as we tend to use it often every other day without really being aware of it.If there is enough saving on petrol on smaller jobs, we can use it for emergencies or for work involving longer distances.Further, walking improves our health too!
Thank You ERR. Very good suggestions.
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