I drive slow because I am hypermiling.
“Yea, so what if I am accelerating way too slow? Don’t bother me, I am hypermiling.”
This is my tone recently, as I begin to notice the gas crunch on myself. My father always said “Fuel and food is part of life, I just put it in and deal with it.” but even he is frustrated with prices not matching inflation.
As a result of the recent spikes in everything in life, I find myself on a diet and hypermiling. This is simply a fuel economy maximizing behavior that people have been doing for years, but only recently has it hit the mainstream media. So what exactly is it?
Using inertia as your ally. Slowly reach optimum cruising speed by shifting at the low end of your gear spectrum and not braking. Braking causes you to need more energy (fuel) to bring you back up to speed. At cruising speed you maximize MPG. This means you need to be more aware of your surroundings. Don’t tailgate. Don’t accelerate too fast. Don’t stop and go.
This behavior leads to better gas milage and in my opinion a better driving experience. Anyone with common sense knows racing to the next light doesn’t get you anywhere any faster and is stressful. For one tank, try hypermiling and ignore the angry drivers around you. See how many more miles you can stretch that tank. You probably will never want to brake again.
