I wish it was a coupon to print out, because traffic would go really crazy. However there is a pretty easy way (at least in theory!) to save 15% off of your overall gas spend. Given that here it is $3.45/Gallon now that is over 51 cents per gallon savings! That would help with my budget!
Ready!...Drive slower (I hear the groans).
Consumer Reports just did a pretty exhaustive survey to dig into the costs of driving faster. For example, if you drove a Toyota Camry on the highway set the cruise control at 65, then at 75, you would see that fuel economy changed. It would have been at 35 MPG then it dropped to 30 MPG, or 14.3% less! The older the car the worse it would be too.
Funny thing is last big oil crisis the government lowered the speed limit to 55, not for safety, but to save fuel! It stayed due to the safety issue.
Sure this isn't a deep thinking thing to save money "Burn More fuel=More Money" but for me it was realizing that it was nearly a 15% saving...that's real money, and can help with you personal finance!
5 Comments:
Interesting piece of trivia. I never knew the 55 mph speed limit was because of fuel prices.
RacerX,
Where are you?
They may have kept the 55 mph limit where you are, but they sure didn't here. I believe it's 70 mph on the open road, 55 in town, but some of the freeways here are posted at 65. Speed laws are mostly honored in the breach (sp?). The police enforce the laws rarely to never--one police officer actually wrote, in a letter to the local newspaper's editor, that he would cite a driver he caught driving under the limit.
I drive 65 to 70 on all the freeways and people pass me like I was standing still--often flicking me the gesture or jerking around me to cut me off. Around here, it's dangerous to drive slower than the prevailing traffic. You become a road hazard apt to cause an accident, and you also are at risk of provoking some road-raged wretch to shoot at you.
Guess I'd rather spend a little more on gas than get killed on the freeway. Sigh!
ah, another benefit to getting rid of my car. :)
Sharon and I are looking around and finding no sign of RacerX.
Hope all is well...
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