A fuel economy gauge has helped me to determine that the sweet spot for my Tercel is around 50mph. When I'm humming along in 5th gear driving this speed other drivers tend to pile up behind me. I try to ride the white line and encourage them to pass, but I still get as many as 10-15 cars behind me at times and they all seem to be in a hurry. Today was one of those days. I imagined the other drivers feeling agitated about being held up. But rather than giving in to the pressure to speed up myself, I realized that by driving 50mph I had increased the efficiency of the entire fleet of vehicles behind me. This was an amusing thought, that my desire to drive more efficiently was rubbing off on other drivers whether they liked it or not. Each one of those cars behind me not only benefited from the slightly reduced speed but also from the draft created by the other vehicles in the convoy. With all the vehicles combined I wonder how much fuel was saved...
