Gas savings ideas (Raleigh, Wilmington, Wake Forest: renting, home, employment)
Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, CaryThe Triangle Area
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Anyone taken the train for short trips out of the area? I was considering it for trips to places like Charlotte and Richmond. If it's a solo trip, the ticket price is less than my gas bill for such trips.
LOL, dansdrive...your "speed limit gas blog" here is cracking me up!!
Thanks Lamishra, I cracked up myself once and it wasn't a pretty site! So I shall remain whole again to continue my adventures of driving the speed limit in a over the limit society!
I also made sure on my whole commute (half interstate, half rt. 70) that I did not go above 2500 rpms the whole time. So it meant slower take offs from stop lights, but I still got up to speed rather quickly.
I think that's where the real savings are to be made, especially if your driving has a lot of stop-and-go. I try to stick to the right lane when I am driving this way because I know it irritates the heck out of most people who insist on jackrabbiting their way to the next light. You never know who's packing these days and I don't want to end up a statistic. Still, it is delightful to pull up next to them at the next light and gaze over and smile.
Day two AM commute yet again. The cool thing is I now have a reason, a challenge, a quest to make the daily boring commute in. Ops back that sentence up, I now have a second reason to make that boring commute in, reason one paycheck does take precedence as money is only as good as the bills you must pay with it!
Ho-hum day 2 AM drive. I am driving the center lane of 540
looking in my rear view mirror at a peaceful yet rapidly
appearing set or two of headlights. Within seconds they were
upon me and flashed by. For a brief moment as they approached
I thought maybe just maybe this is my date with Close Encounters.
But no alas it was just a pickup truck heading to I don't know where
at near the speed of light even though it was still dark outside.
I did get behind a hero of sorts, it was an pickup truck actually doing
65 MPH!! It had no load in the bed nor was it filled with 4 people all
riding in the front seat! I did have an impatient large SUV driver behind me
on the secondary road who decide to go around me on the inside lane versus
over the top of me. Where is my James Bond car when I needed it.
But through all this slow speed and even slower RPM's my gas gage has moved
slower than this presidential election process! So there is something to this
driving at or near the speed limit! So if you see someone doing it blow the horn as
you cruise by as at least I will know it was not a low flying plane!
If you were truly concerned and wanted to make a change you would only have cars that get at least 25 mpg
You betcha! All my vehicles are 4 cylinder with exception to the SUV I am now selling / dumping. Even with 4 cylinder getting over 25mpg I am looking to squeeze some more mpg's from those cylinders.
dansdrive, I am lovin' your accounts of the daily "can I survive driving the speed limit" posts! I have also been trying to be more conscious of my speed and rpms. My car likes to rev high, so 3k rpm is usually my shifting point when I'm trying to drive economical yet spirited. However, I've taken up the challenge of shifting only at or below 2.5k rpm as of today.
Unfortunately I'll have to wait until the next time I fill my tank to get any kind of valid comparison because I had to drive a friend to Greensboro (a casualty of the SkyBus fiasco) and that is going to throw off my normal driving numbers. As I sit now, I was able to get just over 200 miles on the first quarter of my tank without even trying, most of it on the highway. But I don't normally drive on the highway because my commute is a short 5 miles in the city, so this tank is not going to tell the whole story.
This morning I did my best to drive according to my plan just to get a feel for things. Unfortunately, the cute shoes I am wearing kept wanting to slip off the clutch pedal and that combined with the lower rpm shift made things a little bumpy and sometimes scary (note to self, take off shoes for drive home), but I didn't notice a significant lack of power; however, I must note that the A/C was not on and that might make a difference.
Also, no jackrabbitting this morning, and I didn't have any problems. It seemed like the people I happened to be sharing the road with this AM were either not all that excited to get to work or they were also trying to drive smarter. I managed to stay within 5 mph of the speed limit for the most part (35 just seems way too slow and downright unsafe on certain roads here). I am fully expecting to get bullied around, because it seems people have a tendency to want to bully me anyway, even if I'm the one passing them, because I guess people have confidence issues with small cars (why you'd want to bully a girl driving a car that makes everyone smile is beyond me, but 'tis a fact).
I consider myself lucky to only have to deal with city streets on this experiment. I know that 40 and 540 are like the Daytona 500.
I think that's where the real savings are to be made, especially if your driving has a lot of stop-and-go. I try to stick to the right lane when I am driving this way because I know it irritates the heck out of most people who insist on jackrabbiting their way to the next light. You never know who's packing these days and I don't want to end up a statistic. Still, it is delightful to pull up next to them at the next light and gaze over and smile.
Believe it or not, on 1/4 tank of gas so far I've probably gotten about 20-30 more miles out of it. I usualy get about 75-80 per 1/4 tank, but I got 105 out of my first 1/4 this time. I'm seriously thinking I might be able to get 4-5 miles more per gallon on this tank. I have a 6 cyl. SUV that usually gets about 22 mixed highway/city, but I'll probably at least get 26 out of this tank. I can get about 26-27 on straight interstate smooth driving.
I used to have a 5-speed 4cyl version of my same small SUV and now I have the much more powerful V-6 version and it gets about 1-2 miles less per gallon and sometimes the same as my old one got. The engine in the V-6 is a much better engine though and it's a pretty effeicent 250hp V-6.
I really think you folks should try and keep the rpms down on stoplight takeoffs, it really does make a noticable difference and it only takes a few more seconds to get up to speed. It does seem to pi$$ some people off, but when you're right next to them at the next stoplight you can just look over and smile like another poster suggested
dansdrive, I am lovin' your accounts of the daily "can I survive driving the speed limit" posts! I have also been trying to be more conscious of my speed and rpms. My car likes to rev high, so 3k rpm is usually my shifting point when I'm trying to drive economical yet spirited. However, I've taken up the challenge of shifting only at or below 2.5k rpm as of today.
Unfortunately I'll have to wait until the next time I fill my tank to get any kind of valid comparison because I had to drive a friend to Greensboro (a casualty of the SkyBus fiasco) and that is going to throw off my normal driving numbers. As I sit now, I was able to get just over 200 miles on the first quarter of my tank without even trying, most of it on the highway. But I don't normally drive on the highway because my commute is a short 5 miles in the city, so this tank is not going to tell the whole story.
This morning I did my best to drive according to my plan just to get a feel for things. Unfortunately, the cute shoes I am wearing kept wanting to slip off the clutch pedal and that combined with the lower rpm shift made things a little bumpy and sometimes scary (note to self, take off shoes for drive home), but I didn't notice a significant lack of power; however, I must note that the A/C was not on and that might make a difference.
Also, no jackrabbitting this morning, and I didn't have any problems. It seemed like the people I happened to be sharing the road with this AM were either not all that excited to get to work or they were also trying to drive smarter. I managed to stay within 5 mph of the speed limit for the most part (35 just seems way too slow and downright unsafe on certain roads here). I am fully expecting to get bullied around, because it seems people have a tendency to want to bully me anyway, even if I'm the one passing them, because I guess people have confidence issues with small cars (why you'd want to bully a girl driving a car that makes everyone smile is beyond me, but 'tis a fact).
I consider myself lucky to only have to deal with city streets on this experiment. I know that 40 and 540 are like the Daytona 500.
Thanks! A-Ha! I had not even considered the shoe selection criteria as it relates to driving the speed limit! Interesting twist or maybe better said as interesting 'Tie in'. Good luck and hopefully you will not get all knotted up driving without shoes!
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