Double Your Gas Mileage

Have you ever noticed that cars have a different MPG for city and highway? Why is that? I think I figured it out. The difference is that in “city” driving, you have to hit the brake a lot more. If you are driving on the highway, you can go miles and miles without ever hitting the brake if there is no traffic around you. In city driving, you hit the brake because there is more traffic around you and more stop signs and signals.

So there is one underlying principle to vastly improve your gas mileage, hit the brake less. Here’s an example that almost anyone can try. If there is good visibility, you can see the stop light in front of you, just turned from green to yellow. Immediately, you should take your foot off the accelerator. Any gas you burn at this point, will be wasted because you surely have to stop. In fact, the ideal situation is that you are able to stop without hitting the brake at all. You coast into the stop light and the weight of the car slows itself down so you never have to hit the brake. At that point, you have maximized your gas mileage. Read More