William Atkins
Wednesday, 05 November 2008 20:22
Science -
Energy
Page 2 of 3
Using the cruise control, it another good way that CNN says you can improve your gas mileage.
Wayne Gerdes is considered to be the person that first used the term “hypermiler.” He gets some of the best fuel savings in North America by using hypermiling techniques.
According to the January/February 2007 Mother Jones article “
This Guy Can Get 59 MPG in a Plain Old Accord. Beat That, Punk,” he has gotten 30 miles per gallon (mpg) in an Acura MDX and 59 mpg in a Honda Accord.
The author states,
“I first see his technique as the car he's driving, a 2006 Honda Civic Hybrid, pulls over to pick me up. Drifts over, actually, like a jellyfish. Around Wayne is madness in motion: Drivers in four lanes are accelerating hard, weaving erratically, or grinding to a halt. To Wayne, these are the driving habits of the ignorant and the wasteful—which is to say, nearly all of us. Wayne's car glides to a stop as if it has run out of gas. Wayne has stopped without braking.”
The website Hypermiling.com states six ways to improve gas mileagle. They are:
- Always know you gas mileage
- Don’t drive aggressively
- Minimize the time spent stopped at red lights
- Keep moving in congested traffic
- Slowly accelerate after stopping
- Use your cruise control
Read more about these energy saving tips at the Hypermiling website.
The New Scientist article “
How to get extreme milage from ordinary cars” interviews Jack Martin, another hypermiler. He is asked the question,
“Hypermilers have a reputation for going very slowly to save fuel. Is this accurate?”
Martin answers,
“We’re not the slowest people on the road; we’re typically the ones going at the speed limit. When a vehicle goes by, you feel it initially suck on you a little bit and then push you. If you’re sensitive to that, you can work it, like a porpoise riding the waves crated by a boat. You start looking at it as energy around you. And it’s nonsensical to try to be too slow because then you’re just fighting that wall of air as it goes past you.”
Page three concludes the story.
