The Department of Energy says 5 to 15% of fuel economy is used for overcoming rolling resistance. This means your existing car could benefit by 5% or more from low rolling resistance tires. The trick here is that this tire type is almost never produced for your basic or larger vehicles. There seems to be a production focus for hybrids and electrics for this type of tire.

Next, the independent study information: Tire Rack is a group that does tire performance testing. This group has studied various LRR tires against a control tire for a standardized comparison. Note that they do not have separate measurements for city vs highway driving.

Matt Edmonds, a Tire Rack vice president, said that almost none of the tires would save money for the people who bought them. In the best case, you'd save about $52.50 per year if you drove 15,000 miles a year. But carmakers will inevitably be drawn to these tires as they try to meet the new 35.5 mpg federal Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standard for 2016.

Incidentally, you could do a lot to help your fuel economy if you just properly inflate your tires. A Bridgestone study found that 93.5% of European cars have under-inflated tires, wasting 2.14 billion gallons of fuel a year. Americans are definitely no better. And forget about inflating your tires with nitrogen. It sounds great, but Terry Jackson of Bankrate.com points out that nitrogen already accounts for 78% of the air in your tires. Pure nitrogen doesn't make enough of a difference to be worth the effort.

The way I see it, we can have the most impact right now by keeping our tires properly inflated. Make it part of your gas station pit-stop.

There is a great chart with comparisons of brands on the related link.

This really is a happy ending. I figured I better post this in case someone stumbles on this entry sometime in the future.

(CNN) -- A runaway balloon has touched down in Colorado after a 6-year-old boy untied it from his family home in Fort Collins.

The boy was not inside the helium aircraft when it landed, CNN affiliate KMGH reported.

Keep thinking positive! This is one brave kid who probably did not have any idea what kind of ride he was in for.

See the article at CNN. I hope he makes it out of this safely.


From the article this far:

The helium balloon was tethered to the boy's family home in Fort Collins, the Larimer County Sheriff's Department said. The boy got into the craft Thursday morning and undid the rope anchoring it.

The Federal Aviation Administration is trying to track the aircraft on radar and has notified the Denver International Airport. Shortly after noon (2 p.m. ET), the balloon was sighted two miles south of Evans.

Davis said a balloon company has been contacted and several media outlets offered to help track the balloon with their helicopters.

"We're trying to determine the best course of action," Davis said. "This is a first and we'll do what we need to do."

Over at the EcoFriend blog, there is a nice entry with lots of pictures showing off a new, very stylish electric bicycle. The bike is designed to be compact with 20" wheels while the configuration is for someone who would normally ride a 28" wheeled bike.

The motor is a 250 watt unit built in the hub. The system uses a lithium ion battery pack. There is no note of distance the unit can go on electric only, but I am sure this is something we will see more of in the future.

Follow the related link for photos and a little more information.