With Memorial Day around the corner and gas hovering around $3/gallon, the cost of getting around is on a lot of people's minds. It's on mine, for sure.
Last time I gassed up I was pleasantly surprised to see that my Oldsmobile Achieva got over 31 MPG — over the past few months it had been doing about 3-5 MPG less. Some of the things I knew I had been trying to do to boost the mileage:
- Clean out the car. Not necessarily detail the car, but get rid of junk. The heavier the car, the harder the engine has to work to keep you moving at a given speed. My car had gotten pretty cluttered and I cleaned out the trunk and the back seat this past month.
- Watch the AC. It's getting warm in VA, but by cracking the windows I can survive.
- Take it easy on the acceleration and braking. I get passed a lot because I tend to accelerate pretty slowly. Also, coasting to a stop will save a little gas over stepping hard on the brakes.
These tricks help with the amount of gas usage assuming that you drive the same number of miles. These tricks helped me a little, but it's only a part of a gallon a week in savings.
If you don't drive the miles at all, that's the best savings of all. I admit that I've been pretty poor at looking for carpools, but after reading The Long Emergency
The DC Metro area's CommuterPage.com has ten tips for successful carpooling. There are also sites like CarpoolConnect.com that let you look up possible matches by zip code.
Probably the best way to go about it, though, is to ask your co-workers and set up ride-sharing informally.
How in the world does coasting vs. braking save gas? The engine is idling in either case.
Gas is only hovering around $3/gallon? Oh to be in Virginia!! Arco which is the cheapest gas station in my neighborhood of Seattle is currently $3.14/gallon for the regular unleaded. Shell and Chevron are around $3.27.
I've told my bf he is to walk to the store now for his 6-pack instead of driving which should save us some gas.
Anon, watch the tachometer as you coast. If you're going 50 MPH and you release the gas well before you need to brake, the tachometer goes down. Basically the lower the tach reading, the less gas you're using.
Another quality site for finding and sharing rides is Hitcharoo.com. It's very friendly, and more intuitive than a lot of other carpooling sites out there.