CO2 Pedometer -- S.F.

The article I had to read for my economics class was an article about how Kerstin Hanson created a CO2 pedometer in your cell phone as an application. This application would help you see how much of a carbon foot print you have and use in your life each day. Hanson’s test group altered its behavior and reduced its carbon footprint by 30%. This application wants to promote efficient transport solutions, like public transportation is the right option, which helps free up the roads. With this application you can make a conscious choice by visualizing the consequences of their driving habits. They hope people suddenly start to think: maybe we don’t need to take the car today. If people can feel a sense of accomplishment in reducing their CO2 emissions, maybe they can even compete with colleagues to see who can reduce the most.
The way I think this will impact the US economy and their consumers is that pedometer application will help save consumers that buy gas by not using that much gas and their gas bill will go down. But I also think that there is a down side of this. If people do start using this application on their cell phone and start using less gas, I think the gas companies will raise the price on gas costumers that don’t use the application. So if you’re not using the application I think you could be losing a lot of money. So I think the only way for this pedometer to work is if everyone gets one or some people might get ripped off. But if people do use it I think they will save a lot of money in this tough economical time.