-Drive 5% less
-Slow down
-Inflate your tires
When I’m caging it these days I make a conscious effort to ease up on my lead foot, I used to hover around 80+/-, now I’m actually staying at the speed limit – which in California means I’m sticking to the slow lanes and enjoying the scenery. How fast people drive, and how fast they accelerate, accounts for 10-30% of our fuel consumption. If Americans took the three steps above it’s said we’d save 1.3 MILLION barrels of oil daily, which is almost TWICE what we’d get by driling in the ANWR! Nuts. I have to admit that I do often laugh at the BMW drivers (stereotype, yes, but they seem to fit the description more often than others…) who are always gassing to close the gap, than on the brakes , than gassing to switch lanes, repeat as necessary, with the yellow ribbon stickers on their car. That or the Prius drivers doing 80+. WTF ?
5 responses so far ↓
RROD // June 30, 2008 at 9:30 pm |
I have a Quad cab 1/2 ton truck and after recently hearing a “Hyper mileing” (sp?) story I decided to make an effort to save as much gas as possible. I went from a 15.9 average to 18.5. Still not great mileage, but as good as it’s going to get out of a truck my size.
It’s a beating to save that extra gas. I like a good launch off of a stop light. I like to be in the left lane at about 80 such as yourself. But I guess you can save some gas, money, and good ol’ Mother Earth if you just make some slight adjustments.
Phil // July 1, 2008 at 12:14 am |
“It’s said…” by whom? I’d sure like to know the source of that statistic. Not that I doubt it. It would just really be nice to quote the source.
bigdood // July 1, 2008 at 12:19 am |
I’ll have to find the source article again (was on CNN I think?), just have the text. The three tips were by the Alliance to Save Energy, and the stat re: acceleration/speed was by Cambridge Energy Research Associates.
Kano // July 1, 2008 at 3:17 pm |
I’ve been having a hoot perusing your Blog! Great stuff and you’re on the same sheet of music I’m on for sure. I’m adding your site to my blogroll right now!
Crash // July 1, 2008 at 10:23 pm |
Prius people can’t go 80 mph, but hey sure can go 55 mph in lane the fast lane.