San Francisco Chronicle “Trip shows slowing down boosts mileage but can make you unpopular on the road.”
With gas prices hovering around $3 a gallon, a lot of people say they’re making big sacrifices so they can afford to fill their gas tanks. They’re cutting back on travel, curtailing shopping expeditions, going out less often.
But hardly anyone is talking about — or practicing — a surefire way to save on gas: Slow down. Drive 55.
“It’s amazing, isn’t it?” said Tim Castleman, a Sacramento Web site developer who runs the Drive 55 Conservation Project. “People just don’t want to do it. It’s hard.”
How hard? The drawbacks aren’t measured just in terms of minutes lost. There’s the feeling of inadequacy that comes from being flipped off by a 12-year-old boy in another car. From being tailgated by little old ladies and pickup trucks piled high with furniture. From being passed by 830 vehicles, including an AC Transit bus, on a drive from the Bay Area to deep into the San Joaquin Valley.
The article continues.
NewMexiKen confesses that I cruised some of this same route last spring at 90 mph for about 135 miles. It seemed safe enough, but I did calculate it was costing me 25 cents a minute for gas (which then cost about $2.60 a gallon).
Of course, I did the math while driving 90. Your mileage may vary.
Perhaps, we Americans should look at the bigger picture. The reasons to slow down and use less fuel are many, not just personal economics.
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), driving a car is the single most polluting thing that most of us do. Motor vehicles emit millions of tons of pollutants into the air each year. In many urban areas, motor vehicles are the single largest contributor to ground-level ozone, a major component of smog. Cars also emit several pollutants classified as toxics, which cause as many as 1,500 cases of cancer in the country each year. Auto emissions also contribute to the environmental problems of acid rain and global warning.
Drivers can help reduce motor vehicle emissions in the following ways:
·Reducing the number of vehicle miles traveled by carpooling, using public transportation, and planning ahead to combine trips. One person using mass transit for an entire year, instead of driving to work, can keep an average of 9.1 pounds of hydrocarbons, 62.5 pounds of carbon monoxide, and 4.9 pounds of nitrogen oxides from being discharged into the air. One full, 40-foot bus also takes 58 cars off the road. A 10 percent nationwide increase in transit ridership would save 135 million gallons of gasoline a year.
·Traveling at moderate, steady speeds (ideally between 35 and 45 miles per hour), and reducing idling time. High speeds result in greater emissions. Idling for more than half a minute burns more gas than it takes to restart the engine. Avoid drive-through windows.
·Keeping vehicles in good running condition.
I recently learned that one’s gas mileage can be reduced by up to 25% simply by taking off from red lights too fast, instead of accelerating more slowly and evenly. And, of course, racing up to the next red light only compounds the problem (and wears out your brakes faster). My lead-footed husband recently tried this slower take-off and it made a big improvement in his truck’s mpg.