Michael & Liz are Bloggable

In case you missed it, this is an update from my April challenge called Driving Frugally.

There's no doubt this month is going to be a success, the question is whether or not the numbers will be enough to make a difference. I actually think they will be. This might just be a lifestyle change of mine, hopefully the numbers can justify it too. I'm going to try and keep the numbers under wraps until the end of the month.

The reason I haven't blogged about it yet is that there is no real big secret to getting good gas mileage. Whenever you are driving, for the most part, if you are touching the accelerator you are using more gas than your average MPG, and when you let the car coast you are using less gas than your average MPG. So basically do your best to coast more and accelerate or use the gas pedal less. The reason I say "for the most part" is because when you are on the highway, it's possible to increase your speed without using more gas than your average MPG. It's a very small window of opportunity there, but it's possible.

Here are probably the biggest tips I can give though on getting good gas mileage:

This tip I have to give a name because it's the best one I can give. It's called "FIND A BIG SLOW TRUCK". That's the game I play on the highway. Obviously the highway is the most efficient gas mileage you can get, well if you want to increase it by a HUGE amount, then do what the title says: find a big slow truck, and stay behind it. I'm not saying you should tailgate, but give 3 or 4 car lengths, but you wouldn't believe how much that helps your gas mileage!! You ever try and hold anything out the window? It's almost impossible to maintain your grip with that much wind resistance. When you hide behind a truck, that resistance disappears. My car is supposed to average 29MPG on the highway. The other day I drove downtown and on the way there, my car barely ever dipped below 40 MPG. I can't WAIT to test this out on a road trip to see what I can average for a whole tank. It's going to be CRAZY.

My other tips are not so revolutionary so they only get bullet points:

• You'd be amazed at how well your car can coast. You might initially feel like you are going too slow when you start coasting, but eventually when you approach a stop, you'll be going so fast you need to brake. 
• Timing lights really does work (despite how dumb I think traffic light sensors are). I never used to watch the lights as far as I could see up the road, but changing your speed adjusting for when you'll hit a green light is really helpful. 
• Pay attention to how often you needlessly hit the accelerator, it's amazing. Like when you pull in the driveway for example. I used to pull up, wait for the garage door to open, and then give little accelerations to get in the garage. I've cut down on doing that and now I time it so that by the time the door is open enough to pull in, I can just roll in without touching the accelerator. This is even worse in the open road. Every time you touch the accelerator, you're killing your gas mileage. 

Now this isn't really a tip as much as it's an argument. There is one thing tip about MPG that people suggest and that is to accelerate "low and slow". Meaning to accelerate slow and change gears while the RPMs are low. I'm not convinced this is the most efficient way to accelerate.

Being able to watch the gauge in my car is super helpful in being able to see what my current MPG output is. What I've learned throughout the month is that going from stopped to the speed limit keeps your MPG output below your cars average, no matter how quickly or slowly you accelerate. So what I'm wondering is: "is it really more efficient to accelerate slowly?" If your car is at it's most efficient when you are trying to maintain your speed, wouldn't it be better to intelligently accelerate to the speed limit as fast as possible and then maintain than to accelerate slow and keep your cars MPG output below the average for longer than necessary? I say intelligently because obviously jack rabbit starts are bad where you rev the engine a ton, but getting to the speed limit and still keeping your RPMs at a reasonable level to me seems the most efficient. Intentionally going slow while still trying to accelerate is really not efficient based on what I've seen.

This is not a question I expect to solve, and I don't even think there is anyway to run a test using human input. You'd have to use a computer simulation or something. But the differences between the two ways I've suggested to accelerate your car I believe would be very small. My argument is that "low and slow" probably isn't the "most" efficient.

I like how this month has gone. I feel like I've made a permanent change too. I still get annoyed with other drivers cutting me off or driving as if I'm going the speed of a snail, so if I can just get over that, then there's no reason I can't keep this up every month.