You would never think that driving could actually help the planet out a little bit. But it seems to a certain degree your driving habits can help reduce the pollution your car throws out into the atmosphere. There are the obvious tricks of not revving your car at traffic lights and not racing from traffic light to traffic light. Now there is a new trick, so says Sean Lloyd, editor of SLXS, a Cape Town based web magazine.

Sean goes on to explain ” So I was chilling the other day in the VR3 on my way through the suburb of Claremont. I was driving behind this Mercedes SLK and I was about to go through a set of traffic lights when they the lights went orange. I thought there was plenty of time still to get through and so did not even consider touching the brakes. The Mercedes in front of me however decided to stick to the rules, by the book, and stopped in a rather dramatic fashion. I was then forced to cut into the left hand lane in order to get a clear passage through the traffic lights. I went through safely, and the Mercedes sat idling at the robots”

Sean now pauses, in a moment of great reflection, realising that what he is about to say might help save the planet in a small way.

“So I began to think. It hurt a little at first but I broke through the pain barrier. If at every single traffic light, when it went orange, two cars snuck through, this would mean that they would not waste petrol sitting at that traffic light idling. If this happened at every traffic light in the world, millions of litres of petrol would be saved. So we should all drive with a little more edge and flair. It’s the least we can do for this beautiful planet of ours.”

Sean now takes a moment again to reflect, on a life of excess.

“We really can do better for our planet. We just need a little common sense”

And this is so true. We don’t have to drive by the rules all the time. It’s not even breaking the rules. It’s twisting them ever so lightly.

Let’s save the planet. Let’s not be boring, slow, painful drivers.

As Sean says “There is nothing more frustrating than when someone stops on a dime at the slightest flicker of orange on the traffic lights. It’s so annoying having to wait for another light change, when you could have just gone right through it without any hassle”

Wise words.

Wise words indeed.

Sean Lloyd

Editor