Students, save a gallon

The Davis Enterprise: October 9, 2009

Davis Bicycles! column #28
Authors: Christal Waters, Tim Starback, and Phil Cox

photo caption:
Tyler Crowell, then a fifth-grader, and his brother Ryan, then a fourth-grader, lock their bikes on the first day of school last year at Korematsu Elementary. Students are encouraged to bike, walk, skateboard, scooter, car-pool or take the bus to school and compete for prizes in a contest sponsored by Davis Bicycles!
SUE COCKRELL/ENTERPRISE PHOTO

Save a gallon, save the world! Transportation is the largest source of global warming emissions in California, responsible for 38 percent of state greenhouse gases. That is a huge percentage of carbon entering our environment that people can reduce using alternative transportation modes — anything other than a single-occupant vehicle.

Personal impacts on carbon emission reduction can easily be quantified using saveagallon.org, a user-friendly Web site developed by Davis residents Tim Starback and Phil Cox. Each gallon of gas burned by a car produces almost 20 pounds of carbon; 15 gallons avoided equals nearly 300 pounds of carbon not emitted.

Starback and Cox had always been avid bicyclists, mostly for recreation. But after they moved to Davis, the bike became a mode of transportation rather than just a fun way to exercise. Tim settled into a career of programming and database work and Phil became an elementary school teacher in Sacramento.

One day while discussing bicycling and its fiscal and environmental benefits, Tim's thirst for creating Web sites and Phil's love of numbers came together in saveagallon.org (SAG). The purpose of the Web site is to quantify a person's savings of dollars and gas and the prevention of CO2 as a result of using alternative transportation. In short, SAG tells you the size of your green footprint.

In addition to bicycling miles, SAG allows a user to enter other carbon-reducing modes of transportation, including public transit, walking, skateboarding, foot-powered scooter and two-student car-pooling. The site breaks down efforts with graphs and charts, showing one's progress in each category.

Phil started using SAG with his third-grade class to help students realize they can have a positive impact on our environment. Most kids knew of global warming caused by greenhouse gases, but few realized they could make a difference. He explained the benefits of new transportation modes and soon his students went from 20 to 80 percent using alternative transportation. His class logged more than 1,300 miles, saved 68 gallons of gasoline and prevented the release of more than 1,300 pounds of CO2 — a significant contribution.

This got Tim and Phil thinking, if this was just one class, in one city, what would happen if SAG could interest one whole school district? What about a city? Advocacy for alternative transportation and personal responsibility is their new mission. They encourage anyone to sign up, and would rather have 1,000 people log half a mile a week than 10 log 100, because they know the habit sticks and the more people they reach the better.

Meanwhile, Davis Bicycles! was looking to expand the wildly successful May is Bike Month competition in the Davis schools to a full yearlong campaign. The May is Bike Month Web site went inactive and DB! heard about Save-a-gallon and contacted Tim and Phil. They were enthusiastic about creating a separate area on the Web site to host the competition for Davis schools.

Davis Bicycles! is now using saveagallon.org to sponsor a yearlong contest for K-12 students to log their miles to school, activities, friends' houses and to run errands. Students will be automatically entered to win small prizes monthly by lottery, periodic prizes based on miles or days logged, and at least two end-of-year prizes.

The student with the most days avoiding the car will win an iPod Nano. The student with the most miles multiplied by the most days logged will win a certificate for $200 that can be used at a Davis bike shop.

Parents are reminded that this contest is only for students. But parents also should log their own miles, just not under a Davis schools team. Parents are encouraged to check their student's registration, help with estimating their miles down to tenths, and monitor student logging. DB! wants the contest to be a successful and accurate estimate of students' efforts to reduce carbon emissions.

The contest starts Monday, Oct. 19. Details of how to enter will be sent through school parent information sources, or go to saveagallon.org after Oct. 19. School coordinators are set for all elementary schools except Patwin and Montgomery, and are also needed to fully implement the program at Emerson, Harper, Holmes, Da Vinci, King and Davis High schools. Please join in, volunteer, log on and enjoy the ride!

— Christal Waters coordinates the Davis Bicycles! Schools Committee and Tim Starback and Phil Cox are the inspiration and implementers of saveagallon.org — and loyal members of the schools effort. All love biking for many purposes.