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As you start driving, you start developing habits that will stick with you throughout your years behind the wheel. These habits determine everything about your driving style, like how soon you signal before a turn, which way you turn around when you back up, how close you’ll follow the car ahead, and even whether you buckle your seat belt before or after you turn on the engine. Many of these habits don’t make much of a difference, but there are some driving habits that can really hurt your gas mileage.
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Braking Fast
When you approach a stop sign or stoplight, how close do you get before you hit the brakes? When do you start coasting? The more time you spend at high speeds with your foot on the gas, the more fuel you use, and there’s no reason to use that fuel if you know you need to stop soon. Instead, try coasting and slowing down more gradually. It only saves you a few seconds of driving time per stop, but if you drive through the city, and pass by a dozen lights per trip, that can add up quickly.
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Driving Fast
Speeding is a bad idea for several reasons, and one of them happens to be your mileage numbers. The faster you drive, the more fuel you need to keep up the higher speed thanks to friction from the ground and the air around you. This means that every car has a sweet spot or a speed where they get better mileage than if they went faster or slower. On most cars this number is around 60 mph, so going faster than that will likely drop your fuel efficiency.
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Keeping Junk Around
It’s always good to have a few essentials packed in your car. A good vehicle emergency kit can include a blanket for cold weather, road flares, an escape tool, a first-aid kit, and so on. However, some people get in the habit of leaving old cans and food wrappers in their car, keeping their golf clubs in the trunk so they won’t have to put them back in the next time they golf or forgetting about something they needed for a special event. All of this adds weight to the vehicle, and weight drops your mileage.
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Avoiding Cruise Control
Not only is cruise control convenient, but it’s also efficient. Outside of special conditions like steep mountain roads, cruise control is better than a person is at maintaining a consistent speed and using just the right amount of fuel to do so. While you should always keep an eye on changing traffic speeds, using cruise control more often can boost your highway mileage.
Aside from these driving habits, you should also think about when you drive. If you can walk to your errands or reach them more efficiently, you can save a lot of money on gas you don’t use. Fuel costs may or may not be a big problem for you, but efficient driving habits are better for your wallet and make you a safer driver.
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Image via Flickr by Upupa4me
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