Quote:
Originally Posted by spacemanspif
...for my commute to work, slowing down to 60 from 65mph would extend my drive by about 1.5minutes lol.
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People only think they drive 65 (or 75, or whatever). That's not a reality, but a target speed that gets hit for brief times under ideal circumstances. The rest of the time is spent accelerating to it, hitting the brakes when someone changes lanes badly, accelerating again, hitting the brakes when an on ramp comes in, etc.
Your target speed is never going to be your average speed. Commutes on the highway are really just stop & go at higher speeds. Adjusting the target speed downward has the stated benefits that lower speed gets you, but it's also attainable and predictable- your drive will be smoother and actually at your target speed if your target speed doesn't require you to fight your way through the crowd.
If gas being so cheap (How the hell is $2.75 a gallon considered cheap?) right now brings a "what's the point" vibe, it's easy to point out that a month's commuting is a big chunk of money, and can be a lot cheaper with minimal effort. Case in point- at $3.50 gas, my payments+gas were close to what gas alone was in my old SUV. It was pretty close to being a free (brand new) car, paid for out out of fuel savings. At $2.75 it's farther, but complaining that gas savings aren't
entirely paying for your brand new car is kind of unreasonable.