New Commute, New trip best

[spacemanspif]

This past weekend I moved into an apartment with the future Mrs. Spif. Last month a started a thread on how my work commute is more than doubling (from 50 miles/day to 120/day) because of this move. Today heading home from work there was light traffic and I got lucky with a tractor trailer draft at 65mph for a substantial portion of the drive. Coasted down one bridge with the engine on, and the other bridge with engine off. When I got home, my SGII read 45mpg for the trip!! I can't say I'm happy to be burning more than a gallon of gas each trip but this is easily a personal best for the Focus. My old commute, I'd see 40mpg somewhat regularly but if I can pull down 45mpg regularly, I'll be a much happier commuter

[cowmeat]

Nice one, Spif!

Optimizing your route is right up there with changing your driving habits as one of the biggest potential gains in mpg without ever having to touch the car. Most people have several routes available, with variations of each one, so the trick is to find that sweet spot where you end up with the best fuel economy.

I tweaked my route in the Festiva until I was finally able to break 60 mpg on a tank, and when I modified my route in my current Insight to include a lot of highway miles, I gained an immediate 5 mpg.

[spacemanspif]

My rout has 2 options in northern Delaware, highway or lots of lights. Seems like the lights are the best option due to a weird bottle neck on the highway and the fact that even though there are about 20 lights; I only have to stop for 3, all of which I coast up to and do my best to not stop at all.