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Soon it will be Thanksgiving, a long weekend that marks the beginning of the holiday season in the US. It's a safe bet that most of you who are reading this will be traveling to go celebrate with family and friends, so let's take a moment to think a little bit about ways to make these trips less energy-intensive and less polluting.
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The first thing to do is to read this excellent post by Matt about which option is best for long-distance travel:
This is a solid introduction to greener traveling, but I want to add a few strategies to help further reduce the impact of your holidays.
If You Decide to Fly
If after having considered your options, you end up deciding to fly to your destination, try to get a direct flight if possible. It takes extra fuel to take off and land more than once, and if your connecting airport isn't in a straight line with your destination, it also makes your total flying distance longer.
You should also try to pick an airline that doesn't have a first class or that has only a small first class section. The more people who can be seated into the plane, the lower the emissions per passenger are.
Avoid the Rush
Everybody seems to be traveling on the same days, which means more traffic, more stress, and higher polluting emissions. If you can, try to leave a day early or a day late. If you can't do that, try to travel during hours when there is less traffic.
Sleep on the Train
Traveling by train might seem slow compared to flying when you look at the departure and arrival times, but it's not quite that simple. You have to keep in mind that you spend a lot of time before and after flights stuck in airports (which aren't the most pleasant places to begin with, and which become worse during the holidays). With trains, if your trip is long enough you can sometimes schedule an overnight trip and sleep on the train. The trip might still end up taking longer, but if you're sleeping through most of it, you might not notice.
Consider Not Going
I'm all for families getting together, but people should do it because they want to. If you're one of those people who ends up spending days fighting with your family every time you see them and then gets depressed about it for weeks, maybe you should just skip it. Or maybe you have other reasons not to go, or to only go for New Year's, or something like that.
I'm not arguing that you shouldn't go. Just saying that you should ask yourself the question "Do I want to go? Is it a good idea?". If the answer is "yes", figure out the best way. If the answer is "no", then don't go.
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