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OT: Clearly, Gas is Not Expensive Enough

I had occasion to sit outside the other day (it was pleasant in the Twin Cities on Saturday) and drink my Caribou Coffee at the edge of their parking lot.

As I sat there, several people drove up, hopped out, left the engine running and the windows open (someone was left in each car), while they went inside for their drink.

I have no particular problem with wealthy people getting more, having more and using more - of anything - than poor people (it's the way of the world, after all) but it seems a tragic waste to thoughtlessly burn something that someone else could have used, to needlessly generate more CO2, to send just a little more cash to dictators and to put just a little more upward pressure on the price of oil (which comes back to hur the poor) when one could just as easily have switched off the damned car.

For all the whining (not necessarily here in the NG), gas clearly isn't expensive enough to make some people think about it - or do something about it.

Reply to
DH
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The pain at the pump just isn't there yet.

I see fast starts at the lights only to go about a block and stop again. People should learn to drive as if there were an egg under the gas pedal.

Reply to
dbu,.

It is for me. I'm lucky enough that I can afford it but whenever I put 12 gallons of gas in the Rav and hear, "That will be $36, please," it still takes me aback.

You betcha.

0-30-20-30-20-30 is way more effective than 0-40-0-40-0-40. Admittedly, in heavy trafffic, you do have to pick up the pace so the line of cars behind you clears the light.

I can't get my spouse to take this approach, though, nor any of the kids.

Saves the brakes, too.

I did a little experiment last year, with a disposable 5-speed car we owned. I turned off the engine whenever possible (like on a long downhill, or at a light I knew would last > 10 seconds). I increased my fuel economy by well over 20%. At $3/gallon, I'm not sure I'm ready to employ that technique with a car I intend to keep but I am considering it more often.

Reply to
dh

So I guess your not a fan of F1 racing : ) look at all those people wasting gas. Anyway, about the turning off the engine for 10 secs, what exactly is the best time if you want to turn off engine to save gas?

Reply to
EdV

I wouldn't necessarily categorize using it for entertainment as wasting it. It's a drop in the bucket, anyway, compared to commuting and transportation use.

As soon as it becomes obvious that you can. It helps if you know what the light is going to do. The lights I routinely drive through, I'm familiar with those, even in some cases remembering which side of the cross-street gets to go before the other.

Like I said, it's not necessarily something I'll do with the cars I want to keep but if I noticed the light ahead going red, I'd switch off right away and coast, clutch in, up to the light. If it went green before I got there, it's clutch out to restart and continue on. If it was still red when I arrived, I'd wait with it off until the cross-street went yellow, then start. It's more difficult with an automatic. All this is handled for you, automatically, with a hybrid.

There's a lot of long lights in this town, I improved my fuel economy by a factor of 1.35 to 1.4 or so. In fact, that's why my next car will probably be a hybrid - I know that the kind of driving I do will get the most out of hybrid engine management.

Reply to
DH

I don't drive that much anymore so it's not that great a burden, howver when I do go out of town the fillup is a shocker. I remeber the days of .28 c/gal gas, and that was Phillps 66 hi-test. Them days is looooonnng gone.

UPS drivers turn their engines off at every stop. Some of the stops are only hundreds of feet apart. I imagine the starter motors get changed out on a regular schedule.

Reply to
dbu,.

" dbu,." ...

Makes me wonder how much different the starters are in the Prius versus the regular cars. The Prius restarts hundreds of times in the time a regular car starts in a few. Can they be all that different?

If turning off the car did not turn off a lot of other needed stuff (power steering and power brakes to think of a couple), this would save a lot. In my 5-speed manual Jeep TJ, I coast a lot, and I am quite convinces that it saves me plenty. I can coast for decent portions of my journeys. Now, having said this, both turning off the engine and coasting are illegal, so I cannot recommend it (but I still coast). Tomes

Reply to
Tomes

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