Drive more Fuel Efficiently 2
Read First: Drive more Fuel Efficiently 1
Many places where you can drive allow you to exceed 60 miles per hour. It isn’t uncommon to find signs for 75 miles per hour on busy highways and freeways. It is important to understand that you will decrease the amount of miles per gallon when you are over 60 miles per hour. So to be able to go faster you are going to have to accept the fact that you are burning more fuel to do so.
This one is quite a dilemma as you don’t want to be the turtle on the fast road. If you choose to drive at a lower than posted speed you need to stay in the right hand lane. That way you aren’t obstructing traffic and being a danger to yourself and others.
In many ways that is the practical solution though so you will want to continue at the posted speed limits. If you are following the strategies of the other hypermiling guidelines though you should still end up getting more miles out of each tank of gas.
When you aren’t moving, your car is idling. Turn off your vehicle to save you on gas. Many people let their car idle to warm up in the winter and then to cool down in the summer. If possible place your vehicle in a garage so you don’t have to let it sit outside collecting frost or for the sun to beat down upon it.
In the summer time you should also consider running errands early in the morning. This way you won’t be relying upon the air conditioner to keep you cool. This is a very big waster of fuel for your vehicle. If you are using it quite often you will notice you are going to the pumps more often than normal.
If you are stuck in traffic for any length of time, you also want to turn the vehicle off. This way you won’t be wasting fuel or allowing the engine to overheat. A good rule of thumb is that if traffic is at a standstill for more than five minutes to shut the vehicle off.
Do your best to avoid common bottleneck areas as well. It may be due to road construction or to rush hour. It can also be the result of not enough lanes for all the traffic. If you will be traveling those roads often see if you can find alternative roads. You can access interactive maps online where you enter point A and point B. It can then give you several routes to get there.
Even if the alternative is one that is several more miles, it can end up saving you fuel in the long run. You will need to experiment so you can decide for yourself which route works best for you. It would be nice if the alternative was able to save you both fuel and time.
How much do you currently pay per gallon for gas? I am guessing it is close to $4 or more right now. If you can save 1/3 of that then you will be cutting back that cost by more than $1 per gallon. The exact cost will depend on other factors such as your vehicle and the cost of gas in your area. Yet you can see how that savings is going to add up.
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