Perhaps you have heard the great debate about tire pressure and how that alone could help Americans save 100s millions of gallons of fuel? In fact, it became part of the Presidential Campaign in 2008 when Senator Obama told Americans if you want to save fuel the first thing you ought to be doing is keeping your tires fully inflated. As funny as this might sound, he does make a good point, it is about the easiest and simplest thing you can do to save fuel.
So, you ask, how far along has tire pressure monitoring come recently? Well it is making significant strides in the transportation industries for a variety of reasons; reducing fuel costs, safety and insurance savings, regulations stemming from the Firestone Affair several years ago with regards to the Ford Explorer roll-over accidents. Now in the SUV market we see it has made significant headway into the operations manuals of all vehicles, mostly thanks to the lobbying from consumer groups.
The DOT has looked into these issues for passenger cars as well and the Tire Industry has had mixed emotions for several reasons, such as the need to decrease lawsuits and restore confidence in auto safety regulations. The DOT has often stating that the best thing to do is to educate consumers about tire pressure. Perhaps, Obama’s comments could be an extension of all these issues?
Is simply filling your tires going to solve the gasoline crisis?
No, but it is a start in improving auto safety and it will indeed, save fuel for those who realize they are wasting many gallons of gas each week on under inflated tires. On an average car the 4-tires are 12 lbs of pressure under inflated; maybe 6 on one time, 4 on another and 2 on another. Every tire that is under inflated increases the chance of an accident and it is a lot like flushing money down the toilet. Think on this.
