Home | Automobiles & Transportation | Trucks & Suvs
There is one driving condition that is the single biggest gas robber. You must constantly fight this gas robber to keep it from stealing your fuel. When ever you drive you experience this problem. The greatest gas robbing problem is: allowing your car to run when your car is not moving. To state it more simply, allowing your car to idle. Idling is the greatest single factor in decreasing your fuel economy. When your car is running and you are stopped you are getting zero miles per gallon. This is worth repeating. When your car is idling meaning the motor is running but you are not going anywhere, you are getting zero miles per gallon. If you are driving on the freeway for 10 minutes and you are getting 30 miles per gallon, and then traffic stops and you idle without moving for 10 minutes your average miles per gallon just dropped from 30 down to 15. The longer you idle, the lower your average miles per gallon gets. There are several factors that create conditions that cause you to idle excessively. The most common culprits are red lights. When ever you stop at a red light, you are forced to idle your car and burn fuel. Remember that your miles per gallon is zero when idling. Please note that I am not advocating running red lights! I am merely pointing out a gas robbing factor. Another factor that contributes to situations of excessive idling is rush hour. The high volume of traffic on the road during rush hour forces you to drive slower and stop more often. As a result you end up idling more during rush hour than in non rush hour periods. Rush hour exaggerates the red light problem. With the higher traffic volume, you are forced to spend more time at red lights than you would in non rush hour periods. Normally, you may get through a particular red light in one cycle, but at rush hour it make take two, three or even four cycles of the light to get through it. So your idling time is increased two, three or even four times. The increased idling is stealing your fuel, and lowering your average mpg or miles per gallon. But it gets even better! There is even another major cause of increased idling time:the hated orange barrels. Road construction stops traffic. This increases your idling time. Add rush hour to the mix and it makes it worse, producing even more traffic delays and more idling time. In order to fight this gas robbing condition, you need to plan your trips to avoid these situations as much as possible. Plan your routes to minimize red lights. Try and avoid lights that you know require long waits. Plan to avoid areas where you know there is construction. Try the best that you can to avoid driving during rush hour. Stay later at work, arrive earlier at work. If you can, try to stagger your regular work hours. Minimizing situations where you have to sit idling your car will help you maintain better gas mileage. Avoiding as many idle producing situations as possible will go a long way towards getting better fuel economy, thereby saving you gas and saving you money.
Article Source: http://www.rightarticle.com
Scott Siegel is the author of a 143 page manual of automotive industry insider information on saving gas and dollars at the pump (beatthegaspump.com). Visit us to learn how you can get better gas mileage. Find out how to increase gas mileage.
Please Rate this Article
5 out of 54 out of 53 out of 52 out of 51 out of 5
Not yet Rated
