When do gas saving techniques go too far?

In the recent post I did with the 75 gas saving tips - there were quite a few that touched on the techniques of driving. Of course not driving like you are drag racing will save you gas, but there are a lot of subtleties that can save gas as well.

For instance, if you have a manual transmission, it is better to shift to the next gear in the 2000-3000 RPM range, rather than waiting until 4000. It makes sense, since the engine is less efficient at 4000 RPM’s.

From stoplights, you can save a lot of gas by taking 15 seconds to reach your cruising speed, rather than 8 seconds.

Trying to keep rolling towards a red light, so that you are still moving when it turns green helps keep momentum - saving gas as well.

Save gas or save face?

Well, I have been trying some of these driving tactics - slowly accelerating from red lights, and trying to keep rolling up to a red light, in hopes that it will turn green before I have to kill my momentum. The one thing I am noticing is that while I may be saving a couple nickels and dimes each time I drive, people are starting to hate me

I have no doubt these tactics work, but while I am employing them I can’t help but think, “I feel bad for the guy behind me - if I were him I would honk at me.”

It is a funny feeling being the slow guy. I had always been the first one off the line, always driving in the fast lane, and rarely passed by other cars. Since I have been trying this, it is common for me to see cars pass me on both sides when the light turns green. I feel like my grandma

As with everything, there is a proper balance, in my testing phase of these driving techniques I have been solely focused on getting 75 MPG (I wish) and not very concerned how it affects the traffic around me. So, I am working my way into that balance…

Hopefully, society as a whole will begin to drive more modestly and quit drag racing from the stoplights, but I need to keep a proper balance between saving gas and making everyone mad.

Technorati Tags: gas saving, save gas

This post was featured in the Carnival of Personal Finance.

What do you think? Should you drive how ever you want, because you can? or Should you consider how it affects others?

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Comments on When do gas saving techniques go too far? »

June 3, 2008

Kacie @ 7:35 am

I cannot understand why people accelerate so hard from a stop sign or red light, or zip in and out through traffic.

I tend to accelerate slowly (though I don’t think it’s THAT bad) because I want to get better gas mileage. I don’t usually get honked at

Tristan @ 7:51 am

Bob, you could take it a step further, hehe. Ever try hyper-miling? A buddy of mine from work sent this video to me this morning: http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/tech/2008/06/03/obrien.hypermiling.cnn

It’s a pretty drastic approach to saving gas, and I’d definitely go crazy trying to do everything that guy does; but he sure gets great milage!

I’d rather take the Stanley Meyer approach (Google him).

Hank @ 8:17 am

I almost always glide to the red light and meet the guy who zoomed pass me from the light before.

On similar note to an automatic, does cruising my car at Neutral save gas over at Drive? My friends say more gas is used in Neutral because the car needs to keep the engine running, whereas in Drive the engine uses the momentum of the car to keep it running — is that true?

bob @ 9:15 am

@Tristan
I have heard of hyper-milling, but don’t know much about it - I will have to check it out…

@Hank
I have seen that same guy at the stop light too!!
and in answer to your question I have no idea - does anyone else know?

Mrs. Micah @ 11:19 am

I try to know my area and how my “takeoff” from a stoplight will affect other lights. Some of the DC ones are quite predictable cycles.

As for coasting in to a light, whether I do that depends on how many people are behind me, how many might conceivably want to get in the left or right turn lane and how much time they’ll have to do it. It’s a little algorithm in my brain that plays out every time, I don’t quite know how to do it justice.

The Happy Rock @ 11:48 am

People also get annoyed with the person trying to drive crazy who rides right on their bumper.

I would think that we could develop some simple guidelines to help us know when to really really slow down, and when that slowly down makes other people’s commutes longer.