Gas Guzzlers (Obesity and Fuel Use)

Chicago-Sun Times ^ | October 25, 2006 | Monifa Thomas

[Southside_Chicago_Republican]

Fatter drivers cause increase in gasoline consumption, says study

Being overweight isn't just bad for your health. New research suggests that America's obesity epidemic is also feeding the growth in U.S. fuel consumption.

Americans are pumping almost 940 million more gallons of gas into their vehicles than they did in 1960 because the average American is roughly two dozen pounds heavier. That amounts to $2.8 billion more spent on gas each year, if gas is selling for $3 a gallon.

So says a new study from researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Virginia Commonwealth University.

Researchers used federal statistics to calculate how much fuel Americans in 1960 and other years would have used if they were driving in 2003.

"We basically looked at the average weights of people for different time periods, and then we took those people and we put them in . . . today's cars with today's driving habits," said Sheldon H. Jacobson, one of the study's authors and a professor of computer science at U of I.

Jacobson and Virginia Commonwealth professor Laura McLay also factored in variables such as passengers of different weights and ages.

The study, to be published in The Engineering Economist journal, shows that "our nation's hunger for food and our hunger for oil aren't independent of each other," Jacobson said. "Beyond public health, being overweight has many other socioeconomic implications."

The extra gas being used each year to carry more overweight Americans is about three days' worth of what the nation currently consumes, McLay said.

"Every additional gallon of fuel is coming from a foreign source, and it's expensive," Jacobson said.

[Southside_Chicago_Republican]

Just the other day, I was on the road, dodging potholes and bouncing over buckled seams and I thought, "I'll bet the roads are so bad because of all of those obese people driving around." Then I thought about something else. But if I had continued thinking about obese drivers/passengers, I might have come to the same conclusion as these university researchers did-- that obesity is taking its toll on automobile fuel efficiency. Wherever the funds came for for this study, it's money well-spent, I say.

I can't wait for the policy proposals that might result from this. Maybe even another Al Gore movie.

[Prime Choice]

Fatter drivers cause increase in gasoline consumption, says study

*gasp* FRENCH FRIES CAUSE GLOBAL WARMING!! FILM AT ELEVEN!

[Mr. Brightside]

Do smokers decrease the amount of fossil fuels burned in autos since they die early?

[TracyTucson]

Al Gore and Tipper and John Edwards' wife are once again part of the problem.

[dead]

Skinny people waste gas driving to the gym.

[Southside_Chicago_Republican]

I don't know ... but a topic worthy of a university study.

[RegulatorCountry]

Fat Democrats ain't got no reason to live.

[tort_feasor]

I'm calling bullcrap. Cars and trucks are considerably more efficient. America is using more gas because we have over 100 million more people in the country than we did in the 1960's

[Southside_Chicago_Republican]

Yeah, I imagine there are some other problems with this study, too.

[traditional1]

Here's a load (pant-load)

[blues_guitarist]

More politically biased junk science from academia . . .

Time marches on . . .

[eXe]

Yeah wait till they come for the smokers with this.. lol

"Fat smokers who drive SUVs use more gas" lol

Boy I tell ya, every day there is another one of these "studies" that fit their agenda.

[Rennes Templar]

Won't be long before obese SUV drivers are ticketed and fined.

[lepton]

The extra gas being used each year to carry more overweight Americans is about three days' worth of what the nation currently consumes, McLay said.

That's simply not plausible unless they made the cars get obese in concert.

[Babu]

I'm thinking too many Guvmint grants available to too many Liberal researchers pursuing their pre-conceived phoney Liberal results ...

[utahagen]

Elites leftists go after fat people because most rich people are thin and most fat people are poor. Under the pretense of concern for fat people themselves or, as is the case here, concern for the environment, lefties want to pass laws that directly or indirectly target the obese. Makes me sick.

[Fiddlstix]

*gasp* FRENCH FRIES CAUSE GLOBAL WARMING!! FILM AT ELEVEN!

ROTFLMAO!

[Southside_Chicago_Republican]

And probably contribute to global warming, the depletion of the ozone layer, and other horrors, with their second-hand smoke.

[nomorelurker]

Don't know if the 3 day number is correct or not but it's real simple. The more weight you haul the more fuel you burn.

[GeorgiaDawg32]

"Fat smokers who drive SUVs use more gas"

CORRECTION: Fat smokers who drive SUV's and eat at Waffle House use more gas...

There..