What strategies can drivers use to maximize the benefits of eco-friendly driving?

Avoid driving in peak traffic. Work hours in many places are quite flexible, so if you get in early in the morning or get out a bit later in the night, you avoid most idling in heavy traffic. This also improves your safety and minimizes drive time. Using freeways where possible makes auto engine performance optimal, as mileage is maximized at ranges of engine RPM that produce 60–80 mph. For short distances and pure city driving, smaller vehicles could be used, and we also don't need batteries to store much charge. It is also better to hold on to an automobile for as long as possible, as manufacturing it has a huge carbon footprint. Hence, it is best to purchase vehicles that require minimal maintenance over the lifecycle and have a long life.

Note that irrespective of what we do in cutting our emissions and costs, the large stakeholders will keep increasing theirs and will more than compensate for all of our cutting. This is because they are powerful enough to receive repeated bailouts, subsidies and cheap loans each time they make mistakes and transfer their risks to the public.

The public is too comfortable with present consumption levels to make the government accountable in the US. Even though Congress, for example, has low approval ratings, there is a 90% reelection rate for incumbents. In the rest of the world, there are far fewer checks and balances to enable the public to make state-connected players accountable for their decisions. So entitled incompetence in decision-making, also known as aristocracy, is still the root cause of our massive resource depletion and wealth destruction. This has been happening for centuries. The internet is merely making the facts accessible to everyone.

So, individually, we can merely cut our costs maximally without compromising efficiency. Just purchasing food in bulk saves many trips to supermarkets, lowers the cost of the food purchased, and makes it possible to have gourmet food at 1/10th to 1/100th the costs in supermarkets or restaurants. If we want to drive, we may as well go for a scenic drive and enjoy it instead of driving to supermarkets, barbers, salons, etc.