Okiedoke suggests that I drive 55, but as the song suggests, I can’t. I am, however, a reformed speeder. On a recent road trip to Charleston South Carolina, to see my sister-in-law get married, I made the conscious decision to drive only the speed limit, which is very atypical for me. On a road trip, usually I’m more concerned with my moving average, overall overage, ETA, and so on. However, this time, with the cruise control set to the speed limit, coupled with a slow acceleration curves when not on cruse control, I was surprised to get 28 MPG!!! 3 MPG better than the EPA estimate. That is real money in my pocket after driving over a thousand miles one-way!
While driving unheard of distances on one tank, I started to ponder the ROI of speeding. It is really pretty crummy, because it doesn’t really make that big a difference in the ETA on a long trip. Not to mention that fact that all the real impacts to ETA are things that are outside my control, like traffic, construction, and how many times my kids need to use the restroom, etc. So if there isn’t really a good ROI why do it? I also found that by releasing my ambition to stay ahead of the next car, or my need to enforce some kind of artificial moving average, my trip was much more enjoyable, and stress free.
So I’m a true believer now, and while I’m not quite ready to follow Okiedoke, I am trying my very best to drive just at or under the speed limit with slow acceleration curves, it really does seem to make a big difference.
Technorati Tags: speeding
fuel economy
1 comments:
Fantatic! Another person has been birthed into the world of "hypermiling" !! OK, you're not QUITE that rabid--i mean avid, rather....but your thoughts on speeding's return on investment were absolutely spot-on.
The outside factors--potty breaks, construction, etc.--don't bother me as much when I'm getting there on time. They only bother me when I'm trying to get there AHEAD of time. I have recently added 5 or 10 minutes to my in-town excursions for the purpose of NOT "driving it like I stole it," and my personal happy-meter has been much higher than before.
I hate gas prices where they are, but at least there are a FEW positive byproducts to be gleaned from it. Love this blog.
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