From Guest Blogger Joel Smith: Helping to Achieve Green Transportation With a Tire Pressure Monitoring System

There are enough worries when driving on roads today, whether it’s bad drivers, road conditions or just so many vehicles on the road at one time.  However, one new government initiative is looking likely to combat a few problems as well as save car drivers a bit of money in the process.

You see, newer designed cars have a sensor, that is usually placed on the valve or a tire which monitors the air pressure inside the tire. We are of course talking about the Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS), which isn’t a manufacturing requirement as of yet but are a major part of newly built vehicles that are making our roads much safer.

So let’s look more at TPMS, and how it could change the way we drive, and the way we think about our roads and the Earth.

Road Safety with TPMS

What the system does is check your tire pressure and then alerts you on the dashboard with a lit up symbol display when they have fell below their minimum pressure requirement. Usually in colder conditions when the air is less dense in the tire, you will notice the light come on (usually first thing in a morning when the car has been resting overnight).

There are many benefits to keeping this TPMS Sensor system enabled however, because having the correct pressure in your tire will not just save you gas, but it will make your car handle better which will result in a better, all-round more enjoyable driving experience.

The other major factor to tires without the right pressure is that additional fuel is needed to overcome the increased rolling resistance of the tire. This means we are producing billions of tons of carbon emissions into the atmosphere which is having a major impact on our Earth.

By driving around with low tire pressure we could be producing as much as 57.5 billion pounds of carbon emissions, so this is another reason why TPMS is so important not just to our roads but to our Earth.

Other Green Issues from Low Tire Pressure

Unfortunately it doesn’t stop there either as there are a number of other issues that stem from low tire pressure.

Particle pollution is another major concern, and this all comes from low tire pressure. You see, as a low-pressured tire gets more use, the more susceptible to a blow-out that tire becomes. One of the most common blow-out causes are low pressure tires, so with TPMS enabled you won’t see as many roadside tires or gators that you see now on the highways and side roads.

However, this debris soon breaks up and tiny parts of the tire get released into the air, causing pollution.

Finally, we need to look at the materials that tires are made of. Again, these are almost all non-renewable sources such as rubber, so once you have a blow-out, new raw materials are needed in order to replace that tire.

Summary

Next time you go out and about on a short or long journey be sure to check your tire pressure, whether you own a newer car with TPMS or not. At the end of the day you could be saving yourself plenty of dollars, creating a better driving experience for yourself, making the road a safer place, and doing your bit for planet Earth.