California Center for Sustainable Energy

Four-thousand miles of freeways spread across California separating commuters from their destinations, and with the increasing price of gas, trip chaining is becoming a prevalent ideology.

In 1995 this term was used in a study done by the U.S. Department of Transportation to study the declination of personal trips carried out by public transit. Every stop was considered a chain along the entire trip, from the moment you left the house until you returned.

The term is now used to describe the ideology of combining all of your errands into a planned out route that will save you time and money, something familiar to most all of us in our busy and increasingly expensive lives.

UPS has taken this method and implemented into its daily operations. Truck routes are now preplanned utilizing only right turns to avoid waiting at left turn signals. They estimate they are saving around three million gallons of fuel per year with this plan.

So, the next time you wait to drop off the dry cleaning until you need to go to the grocery store, pick up the kids from soccer practice and get gas, realize you are practicing trip chaining that not only has a name, but also is a customary practice of a mega million dollar business. Also realize, not only are you saving yourself time and money, but also you are saving energy and contributing to a sustainable future for our world.