Driving Slow to Save Some Dough

You are not alone in your frustration over gas prices these days. Everyone who has to pull up to the gas station and fuel up their vehicle shakes their head when they see the price, after all. Along with the frustration over gas prices, many people feel helpless. What can you do to lower gas prices? It is not as if you can simply stop driving altogether to send a message about your feelings on gas prices! That may be true, but there are things you can do to reduce your spending on fuel.
While the price that you pay for gas per gallon may be well beyond your control, the amount of gas that you use is something that you can change. You can do this in a few ways, such as buying a more fuel efficient automobile, or staying home instead of driving around so much. However, for those who do not want to buy a new vehicle or who can not just stay at home indefinitely, what options are there? One of the simplest options, actually, is something that can be done quite easily. Simply put, you can slow down!
When many people think about slowing down their driving, they are primarily thinking about either avoiding speeding tickets or becoming safer drivers. While it is true that slowing down provides these two important benefits, you can also save quite a bit of gas by slowing down your speed, both in town and on the highway.
Too many people ride the accelerator as they drive in city situations. They speed up, even though a red light is ahead, or someone ahead of them is slowing down. If you can take your foot off the gas and coast a bit, you can save some gas and avoid having to quickly brake when you get to where you have to stop. This means you can conserve gas as well as your brakes! Who knows, you might be coasting when the light turns green, which means that instead of starting from a dead stop, you will start to accelerate with some momentum already built up. This also saves you gas.
Even more gas can be saved on the highway. While your driving style in city situations can raise or lower your gas mileage, it does not affect your fuel consumption as dramatically as does your speed on the highway. You can save a lot of gas by driving at 55 miles per hour instead of 75 miles per hour, for instance. How much? Estimates vary from as little as 20% to all the way up to 30%, but either way, that is a substantial amount of gas! When you figure in the cost of gas right now, it really does pay to slow down a bit on the freeway, interstate, or highway. Again, not only will you save on gas expenses, but you will also avoid traffic tickets when you drive at lower speeds.
It can be very difficult to slow down your speed when driving, especially if you are used to driving quite fast, or if you are impatient. Remember, if you are not running late for something important, you do not need to race to your destination! Doing so will only cost you gas, which costs you money.