I can actually take transit most of the way to work. It means I have to leave an hour earlier in the morning, which I don’t mind. The problem is that at the end of the trip, I have about a 20-minute walk to work. In Atlanta, that means you’re soaking wet when you actually get there. So I have to drive. Because of the high cost of gas, I’ve been doing a few things differently. Fortunately, I have a great job and can afford the gas, but it’s irritating enough that I am conserving as much as I can. Here are a few tips I’ve picked up that have saved me (a lot of) money:
1. I got rid of all the crap in my trunk (about 80 pounds of junk.)
2. If I need groceries, I go get them. But I also go do all the other stuff I need to do. I switched grocery stores. I now drive a little farther, but to a store int he same complex as a Home Depot, Target, and all the other places I would normally go to.
3. I’ve slowed down. Seriously, I am actually driving the speed limit. In Atlanta, that almost always means having to put up with peoples’ horns blaring at you, but I’ve noticed that driving about 60 (instead of 75-80) has seriously cut down on my fuel consumption – by about 25% actually. Honestly! People hate me, but I am saving money. And really, do I really care about that the guy in the Tahoe behind me who is pissed off because I am not driving 80? No, I don’t.
4. I check weather.com every night. If the humidity is going to be low, I always take transit.
My commute is 54 miles round-trip. At the end of the week, I estimate that I am saving about $25 a week on gas. I’ve taken my fuel costs from about $80 a week to about $55-60 – mostly from slowing down. Still way too much though.
When the humidity goes down in Fall, Winter, and early Spring, my costs for commuting to work are about $13 a week – the cost of a MARTA card. The ride is great, I read about 3 books a week on my commute, and the exercise from the walking burns about 1000 300 extra calories in addition to the running I do daily.
Update: I honestly don’t know WHY I said the 20 minute round trip walk was 1000 calories. That’s just idiotic. Probably around 300 in the heat and humidity – 400 max when it’s blistering hot.
Quackers
Lots of ideas here
smiley
You’re right about speed. On a recent road trip, I was the slowest car on the highway at 68 mph. Always the passee, seldom the passer. Another aspect of speed that’s important is acceleration. I no longer accelerate as fast as I used to. I’ve been saying for a while now that even though people complain about gas prices, few have actually changed their driving behavior.
S
Clearly you don’t read enough livejournal because if you did you would know that this is not complete without a reference to how great or awful the new Batman movie is or how great or awful Dr. Horrible is.
kvenlander
Slowing down really helps. I measured about 15% gas savings with a four cylinder Camry by switching from 80 to 65 mph (from the fast to the slow lane, basically). And I found I was much more relaxed after the hour on the freeway.
Even better, now I have a job I can take public transit most days.
Nitpick: 40 minute walk burn 1000 calories? I don’t think so. Unless you weigh a *lot*.
Nicole
I think he said 1000 calories in addition to running. I know my husband can burn off near 600 calories in a 40 minute run, so I think, depending on how much Michael runs, 1000 a day run-walk combined is plausible. And am reminded of how much I envy men’s higher rates of calorie burning.
Speaking of fuel efficiency at slower speeds- am I remembering wrong, or was that the real reason behind setting the speed limit at 55 in the 1970’s? I think I remember hearing that- it wasn’t safety; it was the gas crisis. Or am I remembering wrong?
Mark Gisleson
Slower on the freeways is fine, but here in the Twin Cities we’re seeing street traffic slow down which is extremely counterproductive. Instead of traffic moving with the lights, I now find myself getting caught by every traffic light because the drivers ahead of me (usually in huge vans or SUVs) are driving 25 mph because they think that saves on gas. No, what saves on gas is not starting and stopping every block. Traffic lights are timed to the speed limit, and driving slower in city traffic hurts everyone’s mileage.
TR
Yep. That’s how I remember it.
The problem with MARTA is that the lines are limited in where they go, especially on the north side of the city. (Apparently, this is an aftershock of segregation. Check out Kevin Kruse’s White Flight, a history about Atlanta in the civil rights era.)
It’s pretty much a N-S line and an E-W line, which limits the usefulness. Still, the best way to get to and from the airport.
chiggins
one of these can turn that 20 minute walk into a leisurely, enjoyable 6 minute ride (comes with its own refreshing breeze!). With a bag for it, the transit guys can’t tell you not to bring it on the train either.
Michael D.
Yeah, I don’t know where I came up with that!! Probably like 300-400. It’s a very hot walk, so I’m adding about 100 calories to that.
scarshapedstar
I ride my bike and take MARTA and can definitely second the awful effects of humidity. I’m freakin’ soaked after a few miles. Luckily, I usually only have to ride long distances when I’m coming home after MARTA has shut down.
Michael D.
You have no idea. The ENTIRE reason MATRA hasn’t been able to expand is COMPLETELY because people in Marietta and the Northern burbs are racist. I don’t cry racism very often, but this is 100% the reason. Coob and Gwinnett residents – not all, but the most vocal – are completely frightened that Black people might come to their counties and break into their homes.
Personally, I hate them. I really do. [The Cobb and Gwinnett residents, collectively, that is. Not the black people and (the majority) terrific white people.]
In the several years I’ve been riding MARTA, I have not had ONE issue, from people black OR white. People who ride MARTA are generally polite, nice people. They just want to go to and from work or school. You can sit there and read a book and keep to yourself, or you can strike up a conversation with ANYONE. The people who ride MARTA are very cool. Even the ones that aren’t just keep to themselves. Not only that, but it’s one of the safest transit systems in the country. I’ve never, not ONCE, felt threatened on MARTA. I’ve ridden it a lot – day and night – and don’t have any reservations about it either way.
Did I mention I hate Gwinnett and Cobb residents, in general?
TR
You should really read that book. It’ll give ammo to your anger.
TR
Available here at Amazon.
Michael D.
TR: I honestly don’t need to spend money on the book. I live it every day. I work with mostly black people (about 70% of my peers at the office) who have to commute from Gwinnett and Cobb county. What upsets me most about them is that, while they are wonderful people, they have resigned themselves to knowing they’ll not be able to take transit for a long time. I get aggravated at them, and they know it!
I bring this up at work all the time. In fact, I probably get on their nerves sometimes. It’s well intended. I love whipping up a frenzy every now and then… Sometimes I feel like I am the white guy
advocating for themtelling them what they should do.What bothers me is that they agree with me when I bring it up, but when I say “Why don’t you come out to the meetings?” I’m met with silence.
Oy.
Michael D.
Did I mention I hate Gwinnett and Cobb residents, in general?
Just Some Fuckhead
I spend $25 a week on gas and I have a big truck. I set cruise control on 55 mph which helps a lot. Also, I work from home two days a week. All my college classes are online.
Robert Sneddon
What always puzzled me was the idea of Five Points gangs taking the MARTA out to Gwinnett and Cobb, breaking into people’s houses, stealing their widescreen teevees and then trying to cary them through the turnstiles at the station. Dumb.
Instead the white folks have got to pay their nannies and housecleaners taxi fare since they don’t have reliable cars to get to the exurbs to do the scutwork. Double dumb.
Just Some Fuckhead
Fuckin white people. Don’t get me started.
Lihtox
That 25% fuel savings would be a big surprise to a lot of people (me included). You need a bumper sticker that says “I drive slow to save money.” or something like that (maybe more details, but it IS just a bumper sticker). Educate the masses and you might have more company in the slow lane.
smiley
That’s another pet peeve of mine — people who drive cars with cruise controls but don’t use them. Always speeding up and slowing down, passing me and then slowing down, etc. I didn’t notice it that much on my recent road trip so maybe people have discovered that wonderful gas-saving feature of their cars.
Just Some Fuckhead
I turn it into a game to see how long I can go without breaking or speeding up to pass someone going slower than 55 in my lane.
TR
Actually, unless you’re on a flat surface, cruise control wastes more gas than driving without it, as the engine is forced to rev up repeatedly to maintain the constant speed.
frosty
I had the same experience, slowing to the speed limit from the 80s. The drive was much less stressful, too. Mileage went from 30 to 33, about 10% improvement.
Next steps in pushing gas mileage:
– Coast downhill. Put it in neutral.
– Shut the engine off at traffic lights. Idling gives you 0 mpg, and the old rule of thumb about starting up taking as much gas as a minute of idling was based on carburetors, not fuel injection. Figure 10 seconds, now.
– Drop your uphill speed 5 mph. Feather the gas pedal, don’t accelerate until you really have to.
– Don’t accelerate into brake lights. As soon as you see the traffic slow down, throw it into neutral and coast to the delay.
Should give you another 10% to 20%. Mostly legally.
RSA
I think it’s because you’re in the fast lane, with your left blinker on.
LaurenceB
For those who are interested in improving Atlanta’s transit system:
Here
Michael D.
Never seen that site before. Thank you for the link!
ThymeZone
My commute is 2.5 miles and I make it a maximum of 4 times a week, that’s 20 roundtrip miles total in a Honda Civic. If I drive, which I don’t have to as public transportation is conveniently available.
That’s 80 miles a month for me to commute at 25 miles per gallon, which is less than 4 gallons, or $16 at current prices.
If fuel prices didn’t jack up my food prices and my air conditioning costs, I wouldn’t care much about them. But I just wanted you all to know that I am single-handedly helping to break YOUR dependence on the Bin Laden family’s oil cartel. I drive a sensible car and live close to my work. Thus you are safer from terrorism, thanks to me.
You’re welcome.
srv
Hint: live where you work.
Chris Johnson
Coincidentally I just put a set of those Pulstar spark plugs into my car, and I have figured out their secret.
I don’t know how much they’ll do for power and mileage, probably not a lot, but for performance in general, they will be awesome IF:
-your car isn’t too high powered- mine’s a 3.3 liter about 200 hp.
-your car isn’t getting too much power out of a cylinder- like I said before. Sport imports need not apply.
-your car has a LAME SAGGY POWERBAND that is partly due to ignition issues. BINGO!
My car, ‘Fluffy’, is a ’93 Buick Century. These eat spark plug wires- if the wires are shot, the powerband sags ridiculously in the middle, and the car bogs like crazy when you get on the throttle. It feels like the transmission is packing up.
I replaced the wires, and got new AC Delco spark plugs, and it fixed a lot of the problem- so what I’m comparing to is basically new stock wires and plugs.
The Pulstars went in and bam! Suddenly it was like another engine. I think it’s possible I can now squeak tires (in that range of the powerband that previously bogged) but I’m not sure. What I am sure of is that there’s no longer any bogging at all. It must have been some sort of combustion issue where combustion wasn’t always as good as it might have been.
Pulstar like hyping their supposed fuel economy gains. I think for a lot of cars that’s crap. BUT, in my case, there might be some truth to it, especially if I do a lot of driving in the throttle ranges that previously tended to bog down. That would be a nice bonus, but the primary gain is if you had a boggy powerband due to ignition fatigue :)
Davebo
I love ya TZ but the bin Laden family is in construction, not oil. And there is no evidence that short of one son, the bin Laden family supports terrorists.
The same goes for the bin Mahfouz family which is also often accused.
Believe me. Billionaire ex Yemenis living in Saudi Arabia are not the problem.
Chris Johnson
And Fluffy has got a maximum of 32 mpg (note: major intake and exhaust upgrades, removal of seats to cut weight, etc) which means even though I could obliterate Thyme’s Honda Civic in a race, and even though I can go VROOM and play racing car driver, I also am fighting the terrorists 7 mpg more than Thyme is :)
Maybe you should look into some performance upgrades and rice out that Civic a bit! ;) seriously- if you care about this, it’s extremely rewarding to put in dual-purpose hotrodding. Some engine intake and exhaust upgrades and that Civic will be a lot zippier AND get better fuel mileage, because the propulsion system will be more efficient for the same amount of gas. I am an evangelist for green hot-rodding now. Absolutely the most fun way to save the planet. Just be sure to get a high-flow catalytic converter- rather than trying to bypass it. Catalytic converters are your friend and help prevent pollution :)
ThymeZone
Uh, no, my quoted mileage is 100% city driving. On the highway I get a measured 41 mpg, that’s uphill and downhill round trip on a 200 mile course with a 2000 foot change in elevation, in the summer, with the ac on.
There’s no way a standard edition automatic gasoline powered Civic is getting anywhere near 32 mpg in the city unless you are doing all that “extreme mileage” stuff like shutting off your powerplant while you coast to the red light. And in Phoenix in July, you don’t shut off your motor until you are ready to disembark. Gotta keep that compressor turning!
ThymeZone
They’re a convenient rhetorical target. That makes them guilty by association.
Or something.
Chris Johnson
Curses! ;)
Maybe if I do more hotrod madness I can get 41 highway…
ThymeZone
I am sworn off hot rodding. I got a ticket for 30 over the speed limit on a city street and had to eat shit and bark at several moons to escape dire consequences. Now I don’t go to the corner without my radar detector on and I have slowed way down. I seldom do more than 50 in the typical 35 zone. Which to me feels about like standing still.
Chris Johnson
Oh, OK.
Uh, I actually don’t drive around much over the speed limit of anywhere, usually. I do like zipping around highway onramps and pouncing onto the highway, for that you’re supposed to accelerate. Have to watch out for semi trailers and stuff though- generally I’m happy enough to be like ‘yikes! *BRUM*’ and jump to 70 very quickly, but entering the highway through the side of a big truck is not fun.
Good for you swearing off reckless driving, no matter how good you are, the faster you’re going the more vulnerable you are to something stupid happening to you.
ThymeZone
Well, I don’t agree that fast is necessarily reckless, although it can be depending on who is doing it. But anyhoo, I’m getting too old to drive that fast. Like or not, the reactions slow down, and I don’t really enjoy driving that fast any more. So I am down to average traffic speed, which around here is about 5-7% above posted limit. And that saves gas too. The radar detector is mostly there as a reminder to keep my lead foot off the gas. I let the younger guys burn the rubber and the money and just spend the extra time listening to XM radio.
Don K
Michael, so long as you stay in the right lane, more power to you. What burns me here in Detroit is seeing people cruising along in the middle (or even the left) lane of a 3-lane doing 5 mph under the limit. This creates traffic jams (turbulence in the flow as people move left or right to pass them) and is a hazardous condition (you don’t expect to come upon someone doing 15 mph less than you are).
Yes indeed. Right near my house we have Telegraph Road, where the lights are timed for the speed limit to the limit +5. If you do it right, you can cruise 5 or 6 miles without having to stop for a light. Now that saves energy. There have always been a**holes who insist on driving 70 on Telegraph and have to come to a screeching stop at the next light. Now we have a**holes who drive 40 with the same effect.
While I’m on the subject, people, you still have to accelerate from stop lights, especially left-turn arrows. When people accelerate at, oh, 0.01 g, you save gas for yourself, but you just sentenced 3 or 4 people behind you to sit through another light, and wasted more gas in total than you saved. These lights have a limited duration…
Fraud Guy
Just my 2 cents:
I started driving just under the limit on my commute, slightly overinflated my tires (40 instead of 38 psi), and also started gradual acceleration/coasting before braking. I also draft off the few slow moving trucks, not right behind, but 75-100 feet back. (If I really wanted to draft, I have to go up to about 60-62 instead of 53-55).
In April, before I started this style of driving, I was getting 18-20 mpg in my van. My last two tanks were at 28 and 26.5 mpg. (But on the last one, I caught myself often trying to catch up to traffic.) My work driving usually includes about 3 stop lights, and about 5 minutes of stop and go highway traffic.
As an alternate, on a recent drive to my brother’s, my 35 mile trip which was 95% highway at 55 came out with me getting about 38 mpg, which I’m going to bet would be very close to the maximum possible for my vehicle.
Let them pass me, if I can go two extra days on my tank, I’m a happy camper.
Michael D.
And most of your oil comes from Canadian terrorists, not Saudi Arabian ones.
Nicole
Okay I am now really feeling for the commuters of cities besides NYC. I am on an Amtrak train to DC right now, on my way to Burke to see a very illl relative. I googled for mass transit from DC to Burke, barely 20 miles away, and found out that the closest I can get is Springfield- theMetro buses don’t run on the weekends. Whaaa?
I am not going to complain about the NYC MTA or the LIRR for at least 2 days.
toujoursdan
One of the best things I ever did was move into Ottawa’s city centre and sold my car. I live in a neighbourhood with interesting people that I actually have gotten to know and I enjoy the exercise walking and biking gives me.
I don’t know how widespread this trend is but I know many young urban professional Canadians who are moving to post-car lifestyles; positioning themselves close to work, friends, shopping and entertainment and then choosing not to have a car. If I need a car I can rent one for a few hours using a service like Zipcar.
I found that between car payments, insurance, registration fees, repairs, maintenance, gas prices, toll fees, etc. I have saved myself about $12,000/yr.
Blue Buddha
Somehow this reminds me something one of my friends told me. She said that one co-worker keeps complaining about high gas prices and spending money on an expensive gym to lose weight. He drives an obnoxious SUV… and get this: lives not even 2 miles from work. She dropped the hint quite a few times that maybe if he walked/biked to work, he wouldn’t have to spend money on gas and working out at the gym… but of course he still does nothing but complain.
Mark
Really, MARTA?
MARTA?
the most pathetic excuse for transit ever?
Forget Cobb and Gwinnett, Transit magically stops at the airport, I suppose no one ever lives on the southside of the city. let alone the rather pathetic politics that prevented a MARTA station from being located at Atlanta Fulton County Stadium. if the city of Atlanta hadn’t been too concerned about getting their parking revenues from the baseball (and at the time football) games… at least then I wouldn’t feel like I have to drive just to watch the bloody game.
Atlanta is a city that was not constrained by any geographical limitations, hence it sprawled and sprawled. The gas crunch should push people out of the McMansions and towards the city, and perhaps companies won’t all set up shop in a 10 square mile area. Maybe if companies set up near where people lived, the commutes would begin to make sense.
it also helps to work slightly off the standard commute times. I’d rather go 75mph than 10mph, (it’d be interesting what the gas mileage is for people who are constantly stuck in stop and go traffic.
gravie
I drive a new Toyota Yaris, 5-speed manual transmission. I’ve been consciously driving more slowly, coasting when I can and not lead-footing it like I used to, and have been getting an average 36 mpg in mixed city/highway driving. I love it!
carpeicthus
I’ve noticed traffic going significantly slower, presumably because of gas prices. Usually when I’m going on a sizable trip, someone is paying my travel fees. Whee!