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As you may have heard, today, May 15th is the national gas boycott day. It’s a great attention ploy and maybe even an interesting symbol of protest. But in the end, all it will do is defer sales until later in the week.
What’s required to really move prices? A change in behavior. If each driver in the US would do the following things over the next year, it could reduce fuel demand by as much as 10%.
Easiest suggestions to increase your fuel efficiency by 10%:
- Drive the speed limit, the faster you go, the more fuel you burn (and your ticket risk goes down) this yields around 5% fuel efficiency
- Remove unnecessary items from your car, each 100 lbs of weight removed can add up to 2% fuel efficiency (another good reason to go on a diet? Every pound counts…)
- Don’t idle your car unnecesarily, for any delay longer than a stop light, switch the ignition off
- Whenever you make a trip, combine multiple segments into one eliminating the need for mulitple trips
- Take it easy, hot rod starts and fast braking can decrease fuel efficiency by as much as 33%.
Easy suggestions to increase your fuel efficiency by 10%
- Make sure your tires are properly inflated, wheels balanced, and aligned this will yield around 3% fuel efficiency
- Ensure your car has a clean air filter which could yield up to 5% fuel efficiency
- Keep your car “tuned up” which will yield up to 4% fuel efficiency
- Use the right grade of motor oil, this will yield up to 2% fuel efficiency
More suggestions to increase your fuel efficiency by 10%
- If you must commute, carpool or take public transport
- Buy a more fuel efficient car, a 10mpg difference could save as much as $3,000 per year in fuel
- Avoid “rush hour” travel
- Telecommute to work
Obviously, these suggestions range in cost and effort from essentially zero (change your driving behavior and remove excess weight) to very expensive (buy a more fuel efficient car.) We publish all of them so you can select the actions you want to take to actually change the fuel comsumption over time rather than simply boycotting gas purchase for a day. Not everyone can do everything on this list, but everyone can do some combination of these items to total a 10% reduction. Let’s focus our effort on these pragmatic actions and we’ll see an impact on the price of gas, save yourself money, and oh by the way, we’ll reduce our greenhouse emissions as a bonus.
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The boycott would dovetail nicely with Bike to work week.
http://bfw.org/btww
On a National level I believe the designated Bike to Work Day is the 3rd Friday of May.
I have to agree…..biking is a good way to meet this objective as well. I’m surprised that the boycott organizers haven’t picked up on Bike to Work Week.
The biggest complainers are the biggest users. Even the speed demons in their Suburbans could contribute massive national savings just by slowing down. Seems so easy.
Tim, I couldn’t agree more. If you look at the easiest and easy items on the list, there is zero excuse for not putting them into practice…
I guess the easiest thing to do is bitch and moan. It’s much harder to cease being a victim and DO SOMETHING!
yes we the consumer are to blame. but, let’s not forget about the politicians who fly in private jets and travel in caravans. not to mention there agendas. the republicans slow new techknowledgy and alternative fuels. and the democrats block new drilling and the building of new refineries. lastly, taxes on gas multiply oil profits by ten fold!
Scott, those politicians are a pain too. There’s no doubt about it.
Guess I’m just suggesting we the consumer control what we can (and try to vote wisely when the situation presents itself.)
If everybody only bought gas from discount store that give a discount, or from small grocery stores and tear up there gas credit cards there would be a shock to the big corperate companys. they won’t like that a bit…
Joe
Just traded in a medium sized toyota car for a compact toyota and saved $15.00 at the pump this first week.
Good for you Mary! That’s encouraging news. These things do make a difference over time.
Mary and Mike – you’ve got half the idea right. Conserving fuel with efficient cars keeps our US dollars from going to the Middle East; but don’t forget to buy an American car next time to keep US profits (and jobs!) here where we are all bleeding. There are a lot of great domestic Hybrids now, plus 35 MPG is becomming common in domestic compacts – check out the 2008 Ford Focus.
Great point Brian, now that US-made alternatives are becoming available, we should keep our business here at home.
Just put my biggie GMC in storage for six months and bought a $300.00 winter beater up car. Ford 2.3 L just paid $45 for 500 klicks. Cheap.
Great idea Don, glad that’s working out for you.
[…] – Save 10% on Gasoline – This entry was very popular as the fuel prices spiked in the US, a series of recommendations that […]
Yes comonsense, I went twice as far on a tank of gas on my snowmobile just by not going full throtle -wideopened, only on the staight away flat terrain and didn’t do “tricks” all the time!!I can go sledden mtwice as much for the same price wow only $24.75 plus $3.50 for oil don’t need the best stuff every time , makes no difference.See you
out there.