There is an activity that is the single biggest gas robber. You must constantly battle this gas robber to prevent it from stealing your gas. Any time you drive your car you encounter this problem.
The greatest gas robbing problem is: allowing your car to run when your car is not moving. To state it more simply, allowing your car to idle. Idling is the greatest single factor in decreasing your fuel economy.
When your car is running and you are stopped you are getting zero miles per gallon. This is worth repeating. When your car is idling meaning the motor is running but you are not going anywhere, you are getting zero miles per gallon.
If you are driving on the freeway for 10 minutes and you are getting 30 miles per gallon, and then traffic stops and you idle without moving for 10 minutes your average miles per gallon just dropped from 30 down to 15. The longer you idle, the lower your average miles per gallon gets.
There are several factors that contribute to conditions that cause you to waste fuel idling. The biggest culprits are red lights. Every time you stop at a red light, you are forced to idle your car and burn gas at a rate of zero miles per gallon. Please note that I am not advocating not stopping at red lights! I am just pointing out one condition causing idling.
Another contributor to excessive idling is rush hour. The increased volume of traffic on the highways during rush hour causes you to stop more often. As a result you idle more during rush hour and waste more fuel than in non rush hour periods.
Rush hour exaggerates the red light problem. With the higher traffic volume, you are forced to spend more time at red lights than you would in non rush hour periods. Normally, you may get through a particular red light in one cycle, but at rush hour it make take two, three or even four cycles of the light to get through it. So your idling time is increased two, three or even four times.
All that increased idling is robbing you of fuel, and lowering your average miles per gallon. In addition to red lights and rush hour there is one more major cause of idling time. The dreaded orange barrels. Road construction that slows and stops traffic increases your idle time. Of course, rush hour also exacerbates this problem causing even more traffic delays and more idling.
How can you fight this excessive idling? The short answer is planning. You have to plan your driving trips to avoid as many idling situations as possible. I don't advocate not stopping at red lights but you can reduce your idling by planning your travel routes to minimize red lights. Avoid lights that you know have long wait cycles. Plan to avoid areas where you know there is construction. Avoid driving during rush hour if at all possible. Arrive earlier at work to avoid the heavy traffic or stay later at work. Try to stagger your work hours so your commute takes advantage of non rush hour times.
Avoiding as many idle producing situations will help you maintain better gas mileage. If you can minimize situations where you have to sit idling your car, you will go a long way towards increasing your fuel economy, saving gas and saving money.
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