Car

A Mountain of an Impact - The Carbon Footprint of American Roads

A Mountain of an Impact - The Carbon Footprint of American Roads

Cars a large part of our lives

The average family has two.  And they will spend 852 hours inside them each year. 23% of that time will be spent idling.  Each of our families will spend, on average, nearly $18,000 a year for all of the vehicle expenses combined - over $400 for fuel for that idling alone.

The 253 Million cars on American roads will travel 3 trillion miles this year.  And they will produce 1.2 billion metric tons of co2, or if you like even bigger numbers: 2.64 trillion pounds.  That volume of co2 requires 986 million acres of forest to remove from the atmosphere.