Just slow down

[usmclowrider]

I was amazed once again last week by my 1993 Toyota Camry. The best I had ever done on the highway was 31 mpg at 70 running the A/C. So now that I am into the hypermiling game I decided to slow it down to 60 and it was about 70 degrees so the A/C was off for the whole trip. It was also a quite flat trip so I used the cruise control and even with some hills the car never downshifted. I did a 238 mile trip and used 6.5 gallons of gas for a total of 36.6 mpg. What a great victory! Maybe next time I will try it without cruise control. This site is full of great tips, tricks and just plain obvious pointers that most people don't even think about. Got me thinking, maybe we should go back to the Nationwide 55 for sake of helping the environment. Thanks everyone for all the help provided here.

[cbaber]

Welcome to the 60 mph speed limit club

[UltArc]

It seems my engine loves the 57-59 range. No hard data, just experiencing it. I could be wrong.

Your engine will have a sweet spot, too. Often people think it is 65+, and I don't know why. I am sure I am more efficient at a much lower speed, but 1400 RPM in 6th runs pretty smooth for me. I use cruise, but do so carefully. I will cut it for down hills, or when I want to accelerate for a nice coast, or ease off the throttle up a hill when I will be gaining it back for free on the other side. But for general flat/no intervention needed driving, cruise will use as little fuel as possible- good with me

[Sovereign]

I do 55 and everyone hates me. But 35MPG (200+ miles) out of my car is insane, so I'll take it.

[redpoint5]

The title could also read "just spend more time driving".

I'm only partially kidding. The average commute in the US is 16 miles and 26 minutes in 1 direction. That means the typical commuter travels 32 miles and spends 52 minutes in their vehicle 5 days per week. That's 45 waking hours per year. Traveling 15% faster would save nearly a full 8hr work day of time. Having just 1 more passenger would double the amount of time saved by traveling faster.

It's all a balance of economy of fuel vs economy of time. Each person will value these considerations differently.

In my case, I tend to drive the speed limit (55-65 in Oregon) when I'm by myself, and go about 6 mph over the limit when I have passengers.

I find that the speed limits in Oregon to be extremely conservative when compared to the limits from other states. CA tends to be 10 mph faster in most driving environments. The Silicon Valley workers time must be more valuable than the barista workers time

[Frank Lee]

Does it matter? It seems very, very few make any effort whatsoever to live close to work thus making a few mph variances moot vs knocking that 10 or 15% off the commute distance. Of course, knock more than that off and suddenly bicycling becomes a more viable option.

[oldtamiyaphile]

Originally Posted by Frank Lee

Does it matter? It seems very, very few make any effort whatsoever to live close to work thus making a few mph variances moot vs knocking that 10 or 15% off the commute distance. Of course, knock more than that off and suddenly bicycling becomes a more viable option.

The US might be different, but moving house (if you buy it) cost about $30,000+ in fees etc here.

According to Average Time Spent / Tenure at a Job | Statistic Brain

The average American only spends 4 years at the same job. Even at 10 years, you'd have to save $3k a year to make it worthwhile.

[Frank Lee]

I can't think of any career people I know that switch jobs more frequently than every four years.

[Jyden]

I rarely travel at more than 50 ?
Whats the hurry?

[bestclimb]

I have noted that when I try to hurry along at 65+ vs 60 max the total trip time does not change that much and there is a great deal more traffic. Lower in city speed and stop lights tends to dominate the average.