Hyperdriving 101

Yesterday afternoon while driving out to suburbia to take my son to baseball practice, I came across a radio interview on, of all places, the Mike O'Meara Show, on which they were discussing the gas saving practice of hyper-driving, or "gas efficient driving." Much like the radio dee-jays, it was a strategy that I had suspected existed, but had not realized it was a practice being promoted by some as a way of extending the gasoline we have in our tanks, and therefore, reducing the amount one uses.

After listening to the interview, and doing a little on-line research, it seems to me that my wife, in your effort to get me to stop driving my vehicle so hard, has been attempting to tech me to hyper-drive without even realizing it. Some of the steps seem obvious, but as I tried to practice them on my return trip from suburbia, I found that it is definitely a case of "easier said than done." Here just two of the suggestions for driving in a more gas-efficient manner from Wisebread.com:

1. Driving at an even speed is much more efficient than always accelerating and stopping. Don’t smash your gas pedal when you start moving and if you see a red light up ahead, just take your foot off the gas and coast until you need to brake, giving in to momentum... By anticipating stops and accelerating moderately, Edmunds.com found that you can get up to 37% in gas savings.

2. Going above 60mph significantly decreases your fuel efficiency. According to fueleconomy.gov, each 5mph you drive over 60mph reduces your fuel economy by 10%.

Over the next few days, I am going to ontunie to try and give these a try... but I already that old (especially driving ones) habits are very hard to break, so no promises!

Breathe in, breathe out… YOU AND I ARE ALIVE!