Driving on highway wastes more gas?

Question

I heard from a family member that it wastes more gas to drive on the highway rather than just take the streets. [I have an '04 Dodge Neon.] Is this true?

Answer 1

Cars are usually most efficient at around 45 mph at a steady speed with no stop and go driving like in the city. Driving on the freeway increases drag as a square of the speed increase so driving at 80 is much less efficient and makes the engine work harder than driving at 60 or 55. Try it both ways for a hundred miles on a trip, top off the tank and see what fuel economy differs.

Answer 2

Your family member is wrong driving on the highway is way more fuel efficient than surface streets. Especially if its stop and go.  I mean on the freeway your engine is constantly going 3000 rpms or less, on the road it goes from 2500 rpms to less than 1000 rpms back up and back down so you have to keep having the engine speed up and slow down more on regular streets which uses more gas.

Answer 3

that family member is wrong-highway driving gets you better gas mileage as long as you do not drive 100MPH

Answer 4

Your family member is completely wrong.  Are you sure you heard him/her right?

Answer 5

No.

If you drive the speed limit and stay consistent you will use less gas than surface streets and stop and go driving.

Answer 6

Its partly true...Its ideal to travel at around 45 and 50 MPH for the best MPG.  stop and go is bad, high-speed highway-the amount of friction out does the optimum engine performance is also bad.

45 to 50 miles per hour is the best.

Answer 7

NO!!!! A car gets way better gas milage on hwy vs city.... Stopping and going on city steets takes more gas as to where hwy you are running at a steady speed  look at any new car sticker the hwy mpg always beats the city mpg

Answer 8

Your best gas mileage will be the slowest speed you can maintain in your highest gear without downshifting or lugging the engine.

For some cars  this might be 45mph, for others it might be 60+mph.

However city street driving seldom allows someone to maintain a steady speed, you must be constantly slowing down and speeding up, and this wastes gas.

If you are forced to drive on an interstate at 75mph in a Neon, you can find better fuel mileage routes, but it is not city driving.

Answer 9

That is the opposite of current knowledge.  It takes a lot of gas to start from stoplights etc.  You drive much more evenly on a highway.

Answer 10

The best gas mileage is achieved at ~58 mph, if the old study I read a while back is still true.

If you compare people going 80 on a highway versus 55 on a side road, then yes it is true.  If you compare city to highway then no, it's not true.