Comments on: When Will Gas Prices Affect Your Driving Habits?

By: 40% of People Have Altered Their Driving Due to Higher Gas Prices « Business & Finance Top News

Fri, 19 Oct 2007 16:03:10 +0000

[...] read more | digg story [...]

By: Matthew Vea

Matthew Vea — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 23:58:21 +0000

The sad part is changing our driving habits will have the most pronounced impact on national gas consumption ... yet nobody seems to want that solution. Odd how we Americans would prefer to pay for a technological fix rather than do something for free that benefits us right here right now. You can read the factual proof in Improve MPG: The Factors Affecting Fuel Efficiency where a Jeep Wrangler's ECU is hooked into a laptop and data is sampled directly from the engine. All of the graphs show the difference in fuel consumption for various different kinds of driving.

By: Everydayfinance

Everydayfinance — Thu, 31 May 2007 02:20:59 +0000

Interesting responses. I’ve read some literature in a past life (Economics MBA courses) that indicated gas is pretty damn inelastic until you get over about $5. Essentially, it really takes a painful wakeup call for sustained changes in behavior, car buying habits, moving back with 1 hour of your workplace instead of commuting from the exurbs to get a cheaper house away from the city, etc. I’ve posted some rants of my own at my blog as well, feel free to visit.
Dan

By: Hostgator » Blog Archive » 40% of People Have Altered Their Driving Due to Higher Gas Prices

Tue, 29 May 2007 06:02:47 +0000

[...] they would alter their driving at greater than $5 and 13% said they would alter their driving at $5read more | digg [...]

By: Motorcycle Guy

Motorcycle Guy — Sun, 13 May 2007 19:11:42 +0000

It’s interesting the amount of people who buy motorcycles to save on gas money. I wouldn’t think it would be near as many as it is.

By: upnorth

upnorth — Fri, 11 May 2007 04:36:16 +0000

Just a thought,

Do you think maybe urban spraw could be the real problem? If you lived near where you worked then these issues would not be any problems, yet i continue to read and hear about people who live over 50 miles away from work, and are in the city. It bad enough for those of us who live in rual areas and drive at highways speeds, but those of you who live in a city and drive over an hour on a good day and 2 on a bad are nuts. Move closer to where you work. I know, its not a nice place, if every one in suburbia move back to the core then it will get better. Live in communitues again. Guess what, gas consumption will decrease and the cities will be a live again.

By: limeade

limeade — Fri, 11 May 2007 01:50:20 +0000

If gas prices going up this much is making it so you can’t pay your other bills, there’s a much bigger problem with your finances.

-limeade

By: MaxBR

MaxBR — Wed, 09 May 2007 19:42:54 +0000

Even the gallon reaching $4, the US is still paying cheaper than the rest of the world. i thing i dont get, why americans buy V8 bathtubs and stroll around town at 40mph, buy a smaller car with smaller engine to do that. if the problem is that if you got a smaller car you’re a pussy?? if so, americans are a bit more stupid than i ever thought.

By: Ken

Ken — Tue, 08 May 2007 12:10:44 +0000

Not all city’s have their lights timed, those that do it is great to learn them but many that don’t have them set to varying algorithms that invariably make the light turn yellow as I approach not matter what. I’m personally of the feeling that gas prices aren’t high enough to justify the amount of complaining people do about them. Granted I lived in Europe for a few years and drive a fairly small efficient car but I still see so many people buying larger than necessary vehicles, refusing to carpool and use public transportation and doing so many other foolish things (some of which I too am guilty of). When I see more compact and subcompact cars on the road than SUVs, public transportation filled to near capacity, very few single occupant vehicles on commutes, and bike racks full outside of offices and stores then maybe the prices are a bit high.

By: anonymous

anonymous — Tue, 08 May 2007 04:56:23 +0000

How I changed my driving habits:

Don’t try to be the first off the line at stop/go lights. You don’t have to put the petal to the floor to get where you are going. Chances are you just going to hit the next red and waste all of that delta V anyways. You are not the winner if you are the first one to the next light.

Instead of braking, just let you foot off the gas. Coasting can greatly slow down your car. Also a greater chance that the light will change before you get to it.

Don’t tailgate people. Give them lots of room to do their constant speed corrections, while you coast along at a nice smooth speed. This is especially true the heavier traffic is.

Realize when your city sets up stop lights in a timed manor. If they have it rigged that you must go below 25 mph, then you have to. Otherwise you are just going to race to the next light burning up a ton of extra gas, only to have to stop and do it all over again. Try to time it so the light changes 80 feet before you get to it. Think nice smooth ride.

Don’t leave your car running, sit idle, and especially not with the air conditioner on. The starter for your car is much cheaper to fix and replace then all the gas you will burn with it just sitting there.

Check your tire pressure weekly. This is a big one. Correct pressure in your tires helps them get better traction on the road and thus better gas mileage.

Biggest thing is DON’T DRIVE LIKE AN ASSH*LE. Be a considerate driver; don’t cut people off to merge into their lane. Its just as easy to merge behind someone and you don’t waste half as much gas.

Side note: I work at a cab company. We are a cooperative and very much care about our gas costs. We have one of the highest fleet mpg’s rates known among cab companies. This is in part due to our great fleet mechanics and in part to the drivers that care they are wasting money. I used to fill up once a week before I started driving as stated above. Now its usually once every 1 1/2 to 2 weeks.