News   Jul 31, 2024
Final Crane Comes Down at Tridel's Auberge on the Park
 247     0 
News   Jul 31, 2024
Resubmission Modifies Massing for More Density on Keele Near Wilson
 560     0 
News   Jul 31, 2024
News Roundup for July 31, 2024
 477     0 

Gas Prices too high??? Why not just slow down?

lordmandeep

lordmandeep

Banned
Member Bio
Joined
Apr 25, 2007
Messages
2,307
Reaction score
2
I do not understand why people are so angry about the gas prices and say the cannot afford it, and yet they drive like maniacs wasting gas.

If gas prices were so high, rationally people would use less.

I personally angry about gas prices, but I know I cannot do anything to lower it. Therefore, I decided to use less gas and the only way I can is to drive better.

First, I have a Toyota but a V6 200 hp car, so it takes a bit of gas. However, I realized with the added HP, I do not need to accelerate so fast. Instead of gunning to 3000-3500 RPM's, I can still reach the same usual speed at only gunning 2000-2500 rpms.

Second, if the light in front of you just turned red SLOW DOWN! Why oh why do people floor the pedal, I do not know. Simply plan 2-3 lights ahead and you will never ever have to race through a light or slam your brakes.

Third, just slow down and do not go 10km over the speed limit. Trust me your travel time is still around the same.


I did all of these things and I calculated it and guess what!
I reduced my gas consumption by 35%! Instead of getting 200km per 20 liters, I get around 250-270 km. Therefore, I save about around 10-15 bucks on my gas bill. Therefore, I sort of lowered the price from 1.35 to about 90 cents for my self and I got my cousins and all my friends to adopt this technique.

Actually, I got this all from CNN watching.
 
Yes but racing to light that just turned red is not saving time. Your wasting money!
 
Agreed. As a pedestrian downtown I am constantly witness to cars accelerating agressively off green lights or stop signs, revving their engines madly up to a high speed only to hit the brakes again at the next light or stop sign... where I often catch up to them just in time to watch them do it again. I see it on the Esplanade, too, where people noisily accelerate between each speed bump and then immediately brake for the next one.

Something about being behind the wheel of a car seems to bring out the idiocy in even the most sensible of people... wasting their own gas is the least of it.
 
I once heard that, as a guideline, if you keep your RPMs at or below 2000, you'll save a lot of gas. I try it sometimes, and while it's a little boring, you still accelerate quite reasonably.
 
The thing is, the average person is quite stupid, and has no idea that slowing down will save so much gas. Even for people who are somewhat intelligent, most cars don't have any sort of mpg or L/100KM gauge that shows you how much of a difference slowing down makes.

My car does, and i've slowed down a good bit since the gas prices have started rising. I usually averaged around 15mpg on the highway, now I aim for around 30.
 
Save lives instead of Gas

Considering there have been 14 pedestrians killed this year in Toronto alone I think there's an even better reason to to drive the speed limit. Factor in the risk of car accidents and rise in insurance how many more reasons do you need?

Cars need to have data displays that show efficiency like Priuses. You can see your fuel use and effiiciency in real time and this goes a long way in getting these drivers to slow down otherwise they react emotionally.

On a recent trip to Kitchener from Richmond Hill I was late in getting my son to a tournament and I was driving about 120 km (I definitely wasn't the slowest on the road). On the way back I set cruise control at 100km and saved an eighth of a tank of gas (about $9). I also managed to piss off 70 kilometres of traffic behind me.

Although with the recent jump to $1.36 I've noticed more people driving the limit on the highways but the speeds seem to gradually pick up as people get used to a buck thirty.
 
Folks, in a cocktail party conversation about 12 years ago with some VP level oil company execs I found out that at their senior level they have some awful nice benefits. Tuition for their kids university, among other things.

We masses think if we have a car allowance we are doing well.

Lets help them out and keep gas consumption down ok??:)
 
Admiral Beez said:
How does stopping burn fuel? It's the starting again that burn it, not the act of stopping.
Click to expand...

You have to stop first before you start again. The reference, if you will note, was concerning an approach to an impending red light. There is no fuel gain to realized from stopping over going through a yellow or red light at a higher velocity. One should simply stop at a yellow or red light because it is an issue of safety and the law.
 
That's not the way I've heard it in the media. What I've heard is that we should avoid hard braking, with no direct connection made to hard acceleration thereafter. That's why it made no sense to me, since if I pull into my drive way, stomp on the brakes and then turn off the car, where's the extra gas burn?
 
Media?

I was just making reference to the comparison of accelerating through a yellow (red) light, and stopping. Following the stop at the light, one must once again accelerate. The point was that, generally speaking, there is no significant fuel savings to be had by stopping at the light (then accelerating on green) rather than accelerating to get by that light before it goes red. The law states that one must stop at a red light, and that fact takes precedence.

Beyond that, the devil's in the details (acceleration rates, etc.).
 
You must log in or register to post here.

Back
Top