Your Mileage May Vary!

[Jon Brakel]

I have a 75 mile daily commute so with the latest gas price increases I was looking to save money on gas any way that I could. The only reasonable solution that I could see was to reduce my speed. What I wasn't prepared for was how effective reducing speed was and how little it effected my commute time.

So, before this experiment I would drive with my cruise control set to 65 MPH and could drive about 70 percent of the highway time at this set speed. Backups at the junctions for 90, 355 and 88 would cause me to drop out of cruise control for part of the trip. In addition I have been practicing gas saving practices for around town driving for many years. This includes not accelerating fast and coasting up to red lights. I continued these practices for this experiment.

My previous average was 20.2 MPG.

I decided to drop my cruise control speed to 60 MPH for the experiment. I could maintain the 60 MPH speed about the same length of time during my normal commute. After 4 weeks my average is 25 MPG! At 60 MPH I drive in the right lane 90 percent of the time and have cars zoom past me in the other lanes!

So, I'm getting significant better gas mileage and unexpectedly my commute time hasn't changed. When I drive around town and coast up to red lights and drive the speed limit, people pass me right and left and I catch up to them every time at the next traffic light. Every time. Really, every time. I think it is the same thing with the highway commute. There are about 4 slow down areas on the way to and from work and I think I must be pretty much catching up with the same people that are zooming past me in the more open driving areas. I know sometimes an unusual truck or car will pass me on 88 and then I'll notice them at the exit for 59 at the front of the ramp. All I know for sure is that I get to work at the same time as when I was driving 65 MPH.

After doing 60 MPH for 4 weeks I'm thinking about seeing what happens if I drop down to 55 MPH. I might have to drive with my hazard lights on!!! 

Anyway, with the way that gas prices are going I thought I'd share the results of my commuting experiments. This obviously won't work the same way if you're going on a long distance cross country type of trip. You'll save gas but it will take you longer. Also everyone's commute is a little different so what worked for me may not work for you. Quite literally, you mileage may vary!

[Bruce Brakel]

sOME TIME AGO THERE [sorry] there was an article in the WSJ about raDICAL [SORRY] gas savers.  One of their terms of art is "rail riding."  Apparently you can also save a little gas if you keep your right side tires on the white stripe, and that is rail riding.  

If I'm remembering this correctly.  It feels like phantom memory, so do your own research!    

"Ridge riding."  http://www.cleanmpg.com/forums/articles/t-beating-the-epa-the-whys-and-how-to-hypermile-1510.html

[Jon Brakel]

I'm not advocating doing anything illegal or dangerous to increase gas mileage.

[Bruce Brakel]

Smoking crack cocaine has never increased my gas mileage.   

[CEValkyrie]

There is very little I can do to help my mpg in my daily commute. I have 4 stop signs, 19 stop lights, and 1 active metra crossing. I do keep my tires inflated and service my car often.

I have saved a bunch of money this year though. I have not gone inside a gas station since last November. I gave up drinking pop which cost more per gallon than gas.

[Jon Brakel]

That's a great tip Brett! As the job market gets better I'm really hoping to land a job much closer to home. That will do a lot to decrease my spending on gas!!!

[smyith]

The reason 60 mph worked out so well is because you dont have to slow down or speed up. going the pace on the consistent traffic yields the best gas mileage, no matter the speed. i found this out when i went to school in iowa. when i first started making the trip it took just over 5+hrs at 85-90mph most the ways (i was young and ballsy), and i'd average 25-27mpg (car rating as well). seasonaly the cops get really bad on 80 and 88. so you gotta run the pace of traffic, which usually was 73-74mph (i put alot of miles making this trip alot and also from Iowa st to Iowa and back as well). As i tend to do while im driving at a consistent boring speed i would zone out at the speed for the whole trip. My times dropped to 4hrs 25min (after they put that mess on randall road it went to 4:40ish) and i was averaging 30-31mpg. if you accelerate slow and coast, not brake, you essentially never have to slow for traffic and you barely use any gas to accelerate constantly. the best part is that i could make the trip back and forth with 1 tank of gas instead of having to fill up 90% of the way. done with a 97 Buick lesabre V6 3.8
In March of 2009 me and my brother took a 98 chevy 3/4 ton 454 pickup with a topper and toured the west. We did our best to not go over 75mph (through the mountains sometimes you just go with the speed the mountain says...you dont have a choice). anyways with they beastly truck we managed to average 13-15mpg. for those of you who dont know trucks and that monster motor, thats really impressive mileage, we couldn't believe it. we were expecting 9mpg at best.
its all about finding a speed your car can maintain under 2.5-3k rpm easily. i personally have found that the low-mid 70s work extremely well on interstates. in my 02 ford 4.0L im getting 21mpg instead of its rated 18mpg.

[Jon Brakel]

Internal combustion engines use more fuel the faster they go. This is the only reason that traveling on cruise control at 60 miles an hour saves more gas than traveling at 65 miles an hour. As I pointed out in my original post I have been able to maintain the cruise control speed for the same amount of time at both speeds. It is actually much easier to go 65 in the middle lane than it is to go 60 in the right lane. Many people do not understand how to accelerate to highway speed on the entrance ramp making it so that I have to change lanes more frequently.

[CEValkyrie]

My rant. Some people just don't understand this rule.

When driving on an interstate highway or full access controlled freeway, a person may not drive in the left lane, except when passing another vehicle. Exceptions include when no other vehicle is directly behind the vehicle being driven in the left lane, when traffic conditions/congestion make it impractical to drive in the right lane, when weather conditions make it necessary to use the left lane, when there is an obstruction or hazard in the right lane, or when the driver is changing lanes to yield to emergency or construction vehicles.

[Bruce Brakel]

My rant:  We have about 10,000 driving laws.  The police know and enforce about six of them.   

[Bruce Brakel]

Even the Road Commission does not know the driving laws.

We have a driving law in Michigan that an electronic traffic control device takes precedence over a sign.  So, if there is a traffic light that is operating and a power interuption has flipped down the emergency stop sign, you ignore the stop sign and obey the light.  At one corner I drive through every day there is a normal green-yellow-red traffic light, and for right turning traffic a permanently displayed triangular yield sign.  In light of the law, the yield sign is what -- an argument for entrapment?  

And what about the blinking red light for left turning traffic?  You have to make a complete stop for a blinking red.  I've seen long lines of cars just zoom right through those blinking red lights with a cop right in the middle of the line doing the same thing.  

And don't get me started on tinted windows!

[Jon Brakel]

I thought it was strange when they passed that left lane highway law. That's what we were taught in driver's ed when I was in high school. I really didn't think passing the law would change anything. But it does give the cops an excuse to pull over cars in the left lane that they want to pull over.

[airspuds]

it was passed because of the politicians driving down I  55  south to springfield

the politicians drinks would spill when the limo changes lanes

ill be on 57  today  to and from urbana 71 mph  with 1 stop is 2 hours

about 25  mph for my   92 buick lesabre


proper maintenance is key