Keeping your engine tuned up can be one of the most effective things you can do for your gas mileage. The US Department of Energy says that repairing some problems that can be uncovered with a routine engine tune-up can improve your fuel economy by as much as 40 percent. And other fixes, such as putting the right grade of motor oil in your vehicle and keeping the right amount of pressure in your tires, don’t take much time.

  Darell S. Bagley, the City of Frisco’s senior landscape architect, recently accepted a Merit Award from the Texas chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects in behalf of the Development Services Department. The award acknowledges the Department’s efforts in framing and implementing Frisco’s new landscape requirements, which the ASLA says “exemplify a commitment [...]

BE A SUPERHERO FOR YOUR ENVIRONMENT! Complete ONE OR MORE of the challenges below to get a surprise reward from Ms. Molly and Rufus. Let us know when you’ve completed a challenge: Email Ms. Molly at mkinson@friscotexas.gov to turn in your reporting form (if applicable). Challenge #1:  “Track That Trash” Did you know?  The average [...]

The City of Frisco Parks & Recreation Department has achieved national accreditation, making it only the 7th such department in Texas — and the 74th city department in the United States — to accomplish this goal. To date, there are 102 accredited park and recreation agencies in the country. The Commission for Accreditation of Park [...]

Tree limbs that hang low over Frisco’s streets and sidewalks can damage emergency equipment and other vehicles and can also create traffic and pedestrian hazards. The City is asking for your assistance in maintaining these trees to a height of fourteen feet above the street and to seven feet above sidewalks, which are located in [...]

By Barbara Kessler

Riding a bicycle offers a chance to stop and smell the roses on your way to work or school.

If Americans substituted biking for just half of their daily short car trips they’d enjoy extensive health benefits, while contributing to cleaner air, which would enhance health in their entire community, according to a study by University of Wisconsin researchers.

The study takes the conventional wisdom – that biking can displace pollution and improve health – and quantified it for a set region under certain circumstances in order to project what the real outcomes would be if Americans moved out from behind their steering wheels, at least some of the time.

To project actual benefits, the UW research team measured the potential effects of replacing short car trips (under five miles round trip) with bike trips, at least half of the time and only on good weather days, in urban areas in the Upper Midwest.

They found that parking the car and taking the bike in their scenario would prevent 1,100 premature deaths and save more than $7 billion in healthcare costs annually in the six states that comprised the study area.