Eco Driving Test + Hypermilling

I just read this little snippet in onearth, Natural Resources Defense Council's (NRDC) magazine, about an online eco driving test. You drive a virtual car and then it tells you if your driving is eco or not. I've kind of mentioned stuff like this on here before. Good things to do are don't idle, accelerate slowly and consistently, don't drive too fast, keep your tires inflated, etc. Adam is basically the master of this - the mileage he gets on his Volkswagen Golf is close to that of a Prius, just by obsessively following eco driving tips. I'm not as good as him (partly because my car is automatic, partly because I'm not as consistent), but I have been getting a lot better gas mileage since I started thinking about the way my driving habits relate to gas consumption.

So, head over to www.ecodrivingusa.com and read up on what you can do (and what you're already doing) to be an eco driver. Click "virtual road test"on the left to take the test. You can also watch a video from our great Governor Schwarzenegger.

There is also this whole crazy thing called hypermilling, where people meticulously keep track of their gas mileage in order to get different rankings of hypermilling status depending on how much their gas mileage is above EPA standards. This is how Adam became an awesome gas saver. If you google hypermilling you can find all kinds of info on how to get the maximum gas mileage from your car.

Spoiler Alert: You don't need a hybrid to get awesome mileage. This site has some good tips for beginners, that don't involve modifying your car's body or anything hardcore like that.

Here are some that I like and can actually remember to do almost all of the time:

• Don't drive over the speed limit. 55 is ideal, so even going 65 is wasting gas.
• Stop accelerating (foot off the gas) as soon as you see the cars ahead slowing down.
• Try to avoid coming to a complete stop when you can - like if you see the light ahead is red, and you are going to be the first car, just slowly coast up to it so you don't get to the intersection until it turns green.
• If you are at a complete stop, let your foot of the brake and let your car roll as much as it can before using gas. It takes a lot of energy to get a heavy car from a stop to a roll, so let gravity (or inertia, or whatever - I'm no physicist) do the work for you.
• Use cruise control to accelerate. It will accelerate more consistently and slowly than using your foot on the pedal, and that will save gas.
• Don't gun it. Ever.

Some of the tips you'll find are dangerous - don't even bother trying those. An example is tailgating semi-trucks really close. The idea is not to almost die to save gas. Use your judgment.

Once you start using these tips, you'll see that it just becomes a habit and you don't even have to think about it. For example, over the summer I got to school to take a final and realized I didn't have my computer with me. I had to rush home, get the computer, and rush back without being late for the test. So, I was driving 75-80 on the freeway - something that I hadn't done for many months. It was so crazy, it felt like the most dangerous thing in the world to be going more than 65!