A new program hopes to teach local drivers how to save money while also saving the environment.

The Centre for Sustainable Transportation, a non-profit research organization based at the University of Winnipeg, is currently recruiting 20 volunteers for ecoDriver Manitoba, a pilot project that will combine cutting-edge data-collection technology with information sessions designed to educate drivers about the benefits of making simple changes to their behaviour behind the wheel.

Participants in ecoDriver Manitoba will have their personal vehicles equipped with a GPS-like device called an OttoView which will monitor their driving habits for six months, tracking everything from route distances and speed to greenhouse gas emissions and fuel use.

During this time, participants will attend three workshops - delivered by staff from program partners Resource Conservation Manitoba and Climate Change Connection - at which they'll learn how to reduce their fuel and vehicle maintenance costs, lower their GHG emissions and increase their cars' fuel economy. (Several volunteers will serve as a control group; their driving habits will be monitored but they will not attend the workshops.)

At the conclusion of the project, researchers at the CST will analyze the data collected by the OttoViews to see if the tips shared during the workshops had any measurable effect on the participants' actual behaviour.

Transportation is something many people take for granted says Terry Zdan, research director at the CST, even though it has a significant impact on our collective environmental footprint. He notes that 30% of all GHG emissions in Manitoba are generated from transportation, with 50% of that amount generated from within the city of Winnipeg.

"We know that by far the majority of the emissions come from light-duty passenger vehicles doing their daily trips," Zdan says.

"That's where the ecoDriver program focus is on - looking at that real-use, real-world driving experience and how can we be more efficient at it."

Behaviours such as accelerating and stopping gradually or driving at a steady speed can improve fuel economy by upwards of 25% if combined with basic maintenance (such as keeping tires properly inflated), Zdan says. The challenge is getting drivers to pay attention to their habits.

"Psychologically, they feel like they're doing the right thing," Zdan says. "Quantitatively, they don't have an idea."

Enter the OttoView, a new product designed and built by Winnipeg company Persentech. Each device costs about $300 and will enable researchers to accurately calculate fuel-consumption rates and per-kilometre costs based on specific information gathered from individual vehicles, rather than having to rely on generic industry standards.

Jointly funded by the province and Natural Resource Canada, the ecoDriver program is being coordinated by Green Manitoba, an agency of the Manitoba government.

"We saw this as an opportunity to work with the community (and) work with our contractors to hopefully change some of the behaviour habits and hopefully reduce greenhouse gases, and frankly, change some of the mindsets in Manitoba," says John Jonasson, Green Manitoba's community and Aboriginal program manager.

Changing Winnipeg's car culture won't be easy, but Jonasson says recent investments in active transportation infrastructure such as bike paths have helped raise public awareness about the alternatives to driving.

"With many of the strongly environmentally sensitive youngsters out there, we hope it's something that's going to be sexier, trendier, almost hip to do," he says. "We're still a number of years away from that, but the more that we do and are out there, I think the more things will change."

Participants in the ecoDriver program must be at least 18 years old and ideally, drive approximately 300 kilometres a week. (Zdan says people who commute to Winnipeg daily would be particularly well-suited to take part). Eligible vehicles must be 1996 models or newer, and cannot be Honda, Acura, Lexus or Chrysler products, which are incompatible with the OttoViews because they're not built according to universal standards.

People can register to particpate in the ecoDriver program by filling out a short online survey at www.centreforsustainabletransportation.org/ecodriver.htm, or by calling 988-7182.