High Speed Driving Is Costly - Effect Of Speed On Gas Mileage

Save Gas Usage Tips Tricks

Helpless as we are to do anything about the gas prices, the best we can do is to minimize gas usage as much as possible. When some people are told to reduce their usage of gas, the conclusion they jump is to stay more at home to cut back on the mileage they drive. Very few drivers get the intended message which is to minimize all possible wastage and at the same time to maximize fuel economy when driving. 

The world today is moving at a hectic pace. Career people with families and memberships in various institutions, forums etc spend very busy lives requiring them to move fast from place to place to discharge their responsibilities properly and further enhance their career prospects. In the said scenario, once they are inside the car, we cannot blame them for literally “putting the pedal to the metal” to beat the rush. The need to get about faster is understandable; but an important point they miss is that they are wasting a lot of gas in the process that finally converts to making more payments at the gas station.

To put it in different words, your vehicle, whether it is a car, van, sports utility or a truck, consumes gas at progressively higher rates per mile when driven at higher speeds. For most vehicles, the fuel efficiency is optimized at around 55-mph, beyond which diminishing returns set in decreasing the fuel efficiency progressively as you keep on increasing speed; so that with every increment in the speed, you consume more fuel not proportionately, but progressively, so that when driving at 70-mph, you are consuming gas at a rate of 25% above what you would consume at a speed of 55-mph.

Gas Mileage Vs Speed

The rest that follows is simple mathematics. Higher fuel consumption means increase in the frequency of trips to the fuel pump, and more trips to the fuel pump means retaining less cash in your wallet. With an average price of $ 4 per gallon of gas, your total cost can build up very fast over time and as you drive over long distances. If your vehicle is already not very fuel efficient as in the case of heavier vehicles such as trucks, your costs could be still higher. Hence, if you don’t like to waste money unnecessarily, you have to drive a little more slowly. Those who advance the excuse of the necessity to be at places on time, could with a little more fore-thought and advance planning meet their target times without having to drive at exceedingly fast speeds.

Some people consider it beneath their dignity to slow down on highways, freeway or interstate especially when others overtake them at will. However, this is something you have to stomach and face up to if you are out to save money for yourself. As this idea spreads to more drivers, you could have more equal company on highways with more and more drivers driving at more conservative speeds with a particular purpose.

Best Optimum Speed For Good Gas Milage & Fuel

There is no hard and fast rule that you should drive at a speed of exactly 55-mph to maximize fuel economy. If you feel most uncomfortable driving at this speed (though for psychological reasons than anything else), you may slow down to a speed over 55-mph that works for you. As long as you are slowing down to a speed below what it used to be earlier you would still experience some benefits of a better fuel-mileage ratio than earlier, although not to the extent you would have received by driving at 55-mph.

Supposing that you are going to a friend’s place for the weekend, would it matter whether you arrive there 10 minutes early or late? Then what is the big idea of driving fast now; and would you still not relax and try to ease up on that accelerator?

Fuel cost reduction is not the only benefit to be reaped by slowing down. You could avoid getting a speeding ticket that would cost you a further $ 200 and you would have far less chance of ending up in a crash with serious injury or even death.