Thursday, March 27, 2008

Save Gas By Slowing Down

A certain member of our family has been transformed from a defensive driver who stayed at 60 into a highly offense-minded driver who drives over 75 MPH during their commute. The transformation happened when they changed jobs, and got exposed to overly aggressive drivers on one of CT's highways. But this person might change their mind if they knew how much money they were wasting on gas by changing their nature.

In a typical family sedan, every 10 miles per hour you drive over 60 is like the price of gasoline going up about 54 cents a gallon. That figure will be even higher for less fuel-efficient vehicles that go fewer miles on a gallon to start with.

...

Every 10 mph faster reduces fuel economy by about 4 mpg, a figure that remains fairly constant regardless of vehicle size, Clark said. (It might seem that a larger vehicle, with more aerodynamic drag, would see more of an impact. But larger vehicles also tend to have larger, more powerful engines that can more easily cope with the added load.)
I can only wonder how much gas Quizwedge used to waste during his regular commute when he approached the speed of light.

3 comments:

CRCHAIR said...

I have found that my cars get better gas mileage at 65mph than 55 or 60mph. I'm not sure about 70mph or higher as I rarely go that fast for any prolonged amount of time.

quizwedge said...

dang. I knew that going faster cost more, but it's interesting to see it in dollars and cents. While I never did quite reach the speed of light, I did have a lead foot. The thing that did it for me was two tickets smacking me on the back of the head and worrying that I wouldn't be able to afford the insurance. These days I drive much closer to the speed limit, attempting to keep it with 5 MPH of the speed limit.

Anonymous said...

I get top mpg at the faster speeds. I normally like to stay within 10 mph of the speed limit, though. Sometimes it is hard to do, as the traffic is flowing and you hold everyonew up if you are only doing the speed limit. I try to go with the flow and not cause any road rage.