Tire pressure is crucial for car safety and fuel economy

Perhaps you’ve heard the great debate over tire pressure and how that alone could help Americans save hundreds of millions of gallons of fuel? In fact, it became part of the 2008 presidential campaign when Senator Obama told Americans that if they want to save fuel, the first thing they should do is keep their tires fully inflated. As funny as it sounds, he has a good point, it’s about the easiest and simplest thing you can do to save fuel.

So, you ask, how far has tire pressure monitoring come recently? Well, it’s making significant strides in the transportation industries for a variety of reasons; fuel cost reduction, safety and insurance savings, regulations stemming from the Firestone affair several years ago regarding Ford Explorer rollover accidents. Now, in the SUV market, we see that it has made significant progress in operating manuals for all vehicles, mainly thanks to lobbying by consumer groups.

DOT has also looked at these issues for passenger cars, and the tire industry has had mixed feelings for a number of reasons, including the need to reduce lawsuits and restore confidence in auto safety standards. The DOT has often stated that the best thing to do is to educate consumers about tire pressure. Perhaps Obama’s comments could be an extension of all these themes?

Is simply filling up your tires going to solve the gas crisis?

No, but it’s a start to improving car safety, and will actually save fuel for those who realize they’re wasting many gallons of gas each week on flat tires. On average, because all 4 tires are 12 pounds of inflated pressure; maybe 6 on one occasion, 4 on another and 2 on another. Each under-inflated tire increases the chance of an accident and is a lot like flushing money down the toilet. Think about this.