MoD Store

[JamieK]

1. The first step toward saving gas and increasing mpg: Always know your gas mileage after each visit to the gas pump. You can do this by using your odometer.

2. The second step: do you drive agressively but not know it? Believe it or not... you need to start thinking about -- and becoming aware of -- all the stuff that goes on in your head while you drive.

This includes:

i. Your driving etiquette
ii. How and when you offer courtesies to other drivers
iii. Your opinions about other drivers in general
iv. How you drive when you are in a hurry
v. How often you are in a hurry
vi. What you do when drivers speed up behind you or tailgate you
vii. And pretty much any other thoughts you have during every driving trip, conscious or subconcious.

... The point of all this being: Ask yourself WHILE YOU DRIVE -- can you possibly give let some of your thoughts focus on having maximum carefulness while driving, including offering buffer space between you and other drivers. when you are not paying attention to other drivers, for whatever reason, does it cause you to use your brakes more than you normally would?

Here's the deal: Drivers apply their brakes between 10 and 25 percent more time than they need to!

Huh??? If drivers leave a big enough buffer between them and the car in front - at least 2 seconds or more - there would be more time to coast before putting on the brakes. And if you see a red light way up ahead, why bother to keep your foot on the gas?

The points to take away from this page:

i. People who don't leave much space between their car and the car in front use their brakes more often.
ii. Braking turns motion into heat via the friction of the brakes, slowing down your car.
iii. Gas was used by your engine to achieve motion.

So when you apply your brakes, you are turning gasoline into heat instead of using the rest of the motion - by coasting through the space buffer between you and that car ahead, or that red light ahead - that you paid gas money to obtain in the first place.

3. Are you stopping at red lights for too long? Guess how many miles per gallon you get when you are sitting at a red light?
Thats right, you are getting ZERO mpg when you are stopped at a red light or any other time you are stuck in traffic and not moving. So the thing to do is: minimize the time that you spend with your car stopped.

Let your foot off the gas the minute you see a red light in front of you. And think ahead, even if you don't see a red light: maybe there is a big street coming up, or maybe there is a 'stale' green light (a light that has been green a long time & you suspect it may go yellow before too long.)

Try to minimize the time you spend fully stopped with your engine idling. The minute -- no, the second -- that you see brakelights in front of you, take your foot off of the accelerator pedal, or hit the cancel button on your cruise control, and stop burning the gas that you know you'll be using up at zero mpg while you are stopped.

4. The fourth step: Keeping yourself moving in traffic congestion.

Anti-Traffic was "discovered" and described by Electrical Engineer William J. Beaty in a very well written and detailed article in 1998. Check out his groundbreaking research article about negating traffic congestion waves.
http://amasci.com/amateur/traffic/trafexp.html

The methods Beaty identifies in his article are a key to hypermiling, because (1) the gasoline wasted in traffic congestion causes a tremendous nationwide cumulative effect on the demand for fossil fuels, and (2) without traffic jams, we'd all be moving along smoothly in our cars, resulting in less stops and starts, which equals less acceleration (uses gas) and less braking-induced deceleration (which wastes the motion we began when we accelerated.) And of course less time spent stopped, when your car is getting zero miles per gallon.

5. Accelerate slowly after a stop. You use the most gas when you accelerate. For example, to get to a certain speed in 3 seconds, it takes more acceleration (fuel) than it would to reach that same speed in 4 seconds. Some ways to use this information to your advantage are:

When you start moving after stop at a red light or a stop sign, *and* if you are in a car with an automatic transmission, give an extra second of time between when you release the brake pedal and when you hit the gas pedal. (Dont do this with manual transmissions or you could cause an accident though!)

As you probably know, an automatic transmission car will start moving very slowly on its own with no brake applied. You can use this to your advantage, as a form of starting out slowly from a stop, even if you only do it for a second. Then once your car is in motion - however slowly it may be going - you can start accelerating with the gas pedal.

Why this helps: It takes a LOT more energy to get a stopped object moving rather than to get a moving object moving a bit faster (friction forces are involved here). Letting an Automatic transmission car start moving *slowly* under its own very small acceleration -- even just for a second -- will allow you to start using the gas pedal while the car is already in motion. (Note... this of course doesn't work on hills. Use it on flat or downgrade roadways.)

6. The sixth step: Your cruise control saves gas (but not by using it they way you might think).

Accelerating a bit more slowly will make a *big* difference in your MPG. The "accel" button on your cruise control is a great way to accelerate slowly.

If you have one, use your car's cruise control. Learn about what it does from your owner's manual, and see this link about how a cruise control works.

Why use it? Becuase with a cruise control, you can accelerate with very small, defined increments, like 1/2 to 1 MPH per click on the "accel" button. Or you can hold down the accel button & it will continue accelerating, but slowly.


Keep in mind that the cruise control normally doesn't allow you to turn it on until you reach a certain speed, like 25 MPH. To deal with this, just accelerate slowly up to that speed, then hit the "set" button on the cruise control to turn it on, and then use the "accel" button to go up from there. (Of course, make sure that the road conditions are safe for slow acceleration. Don't dare do this on a freeway onramp for example.)


While you use the cruise control, you can slow down by turning it off with the cancel button. Make sure to learn how the decel and accel and set and cancel buttons work in situations where you wont risk an accident. By practicing with the cruise control, you'll find over time that your thumb becomes very adept at taking care of the accelerating and decelerating that your foot does during any trip.

Make sure you always keep one thing in mind though: A cruise control does hot have the ability to apply brakes! So never, ever let your feet become relaxed, because you'll always need to hit the brakes during your trips.

Sources: CNN