Saving gas with slower speeds?

Question

OK, I've heard that if you drive over 55 miles per hour you start burning gas alot. If I go from 55 on the freeway to 35-40 on local streets to go to work, with all the stop and go at lights, will I still save gas?

Answer 1

1. Driving 65 mph burns up 15% more fuel than driving at 55 mph.

    Actually, the optimal speed is 58 mph.

2. You get better gas mileage on the highway than on local streets,

    so take the highway route unless it's much longer.

3. Anticipate traffic lights.

    Take your foot off the gas when you see a red light.

    After a while, you'll be able to time a lot of your most common lights just right.

4. When you need to slow down, and you have enough time,

       rather than hitting the brake, take your foot off the gas.

    On the highway, if you've left enough (according to safety) room between you and the car ahead of you, this will be enough to slow down in time, most of the time.

5. Do NOT use cruise control on hilly terrain. On flat roads, it does save a lot of gas.

6. Driving 65+ will use a LOT of extra gas. Drive 60. Just try staying to right.

  You have every right to drive 60 in the right lane.

  Anyway, most of the time that you can drive 60, there is not a lot of traffic.

7. A/C does burn up extra fuel. Don't get hot and sweaty. That's not safe.

      But don't overdo it. Don't set so it's cold. Some people set it way too cool.

8. Oil prices are high because demand is constantly growing.

   In the last oil crisis, Americans started to conserve, and gas prices came tumbling down.

9. American auto workers can be employed just fine making smaller cars.

   It's not Americans conserving gas that is putting them out of work.

   It's a foreign competition and outsourcing of auto parts by American auto companies.

   If GM and Ford put their resources toward building more efficient cars,

     we might even be able to start exporting again.

Answer 2

If you do a lot of stop and go, gradual acceleration will reduce fuel consumption. In city driving, I try to adjust my speed so that I arrive at lights as they're turning green. That way, I don't have to apply the brakes a lot, which wastes energy by converting forward momentum into heat.

Answer 3

correct me if im wrong, but doesn't the car's air conditioner eat up gas too ?

Answer 4

Work on your acceleration and stopping.  Smooth acceleration with less gas pedal pressure is the way to go.  And lift off your gas pedal earlier and coast to a red light.  These will help a lot.  Now if I could just get my 16 yr. old to listen to this???

Answer 5

Basically the way to save gas is:

(1) drive slow

(2) accelerate slow

(3) drive on cruise control whenever possible

(4) avoid braking if possible

As for driving slow, the air resistance increase exponentially (meaning that if you double the speed, you get MUCH more than double resistance).  So driving even 10 or 15 miles per hour past 55 significantly increase drag (lower MPG).

Good Luck...

Answer 6

Please do not annoy your fellow motorists by driving slower than prevailing traffic on the freeway.Up to 65 + miles an hour you will not save an appreciable or practical amount of fuel anyway.  Driving at different speeds from the prevailing traffic is dangerous. It makes "waves", long lines of traffic that ebb and flow. As these gaps between vehicles change speed it is like a snake, vehicles bunch up and the tail end ones often crash.  It is always more efficient to use a thruway or freeway rather than side streets.



Likewise, by all means, use your a/c for comfort. The carmakers have spent many millions of dollars to make the systems efficient.  About one mile per gallon change. Do not lower the tailgate on a pickup. There is NO effect on gas mileage. If you really want to do something, change your vehicle but only for one that is VERY MUCH more efficient than what you are currently driving. You can only save money if you buy a two year old car and pretty much keep it for more than six years. If you are really hopped up on gasoline prices buy some stock in a fuel company. These are publicly traded stocks.

If you are really concerned about the price of things just change your lifestyle. Do you have a savings account? Own life insurance? Stocks or bonds?  Do you read the daily papers? Do you vote? Are you really a  citizen?

The Ford plant closed in a little town in California, Milpitas, about twenty five years ago. There was a photo on the front of the San Francisco or maybe the San Jose paper. newspaper. The guy was standing in front of his house, pickup truck, wifes car, boat on a trailer. The headline was: "How can Ford do this to me?" The idiot did not own a single thing except the clothes on his back. s***w him, he was a foreman at Ford but had no experience or training to take to another employer!

The fuel prices are very complicated and the oil companies are not the "bad Guys", even if that idiot senator called the oil co. c.e.o's on the carpet and scolded them as if they were school boys! Shame on that stupid, grandstanding son-of-a-*****.