HOW TO INCREASE GAS MILEAGE BY RELAXING
The Forth Fuel Friendly Fundamental: When in motion, your car uses the most fuel when accelerating. (Or - How to increase gas mileage by relaxing.) _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________
Knowing how to increase gas mileage by relaxing can give you a big economy edge over more intense drivers. Aggressive drivers pay a hefty price for their driving style. According to the U.S. Department of Energy Efficient Driving pages, aggressive driving can consume 33% more fuel than normal driving. What are the main differences between most drivers and aggressive drivers? For one thing, aggressive drivers change lanes a lot. They're always looking for an opening in what seems to be an urgent race to get where they're going. Aggressive drivers also do the accelerate-brake cycle differently than most drivers (A detailed discussion of the accelerate-brake cycle can be found at HOW TO IMPROVE GAS MILEAGE BY KEEPING YOUR FOOT OFF THE GAS.). Aggressive drivers spend more time accelerating and less time breaking, but they break really hard. They do that, of course, because they're in a hurry. Since they are in such a big hurry, it makes you wonder just how much time aggressive drivers save. _________________________________________________________________
A SHORT AGGRESSIVE DRIVING STORY [Authors note: Let’s assume that the subject wasn’t me, ahem.) There once was a guy who was a fairly aggressive driver. He was the kind of guy who always looked for the opening to get there quicker and figured that the speed limit sign was just a suggestion. When driving aggressively, he could cover the 16 mile distance from his neighborhood to work in about 31 minutes on average - except when he got stopped for speeding. About a third of the distance was on freeways and two-thirds on city streets, complete with plenty of stoplights. After he received the second speeding ticket in less than a year, he had the opportunity to make that same run during the same time of day but driving normally. By normal I mean very close to the accelerate-brake pattern of most drivers while being more observant of posted speed limits. He routinely made that drive in less than 32 minutes. It would be generous to say that the aggressive driving pattern saved a whopping 3 seconds per mile or about 48 seconds for the trip as compared to normal driving. Then he wondered how much longer it would take if he practiced some of the economy driving methods he had read about in one of the many car magazines of the day. His focus was strictly on the time factor, not mileage. This was back in 1972 and gasoline was about thirty cents a gallon. Most folks had little interest in learning how to increase gas mileage. So, he added some coasting time to his driving. As compared to the usual accelerate-brake pattern, the accelerate-COAST-brake pattern cost virtually no extra time on that run. The whole thing was very unscientific and only amounted to looking at his watch when leaving one location and arriving at another. Still, the experiment was repeated dozens of times, and it was a real eye-opener to learn that he could actually slow down and not lose any time in city driving. _________________________________________________________________
Driving slower means less accelerating. It does save fuel. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, engine energy efficiency peaks at around 55 mph. Driving faster uses more fuel. Knowing how to increase gas mileage by relaxing simply means being a less aggressive driver. This style of relaxed driving means that you spend less time accelerating. It's a great way to increase gas mileage, save wear and tear on brakes, and save money on speeding tickets. It might even save you from a wreck. Learning how to increase gas mileage by relaxing costs you either no time at all, or so little that it just doesn't make any difference. And it does save both energy and money. _________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________
Return To Gas Saving Driving
|
