10 Driving Habits to Change to Save Gas

We all want to save gas, but with prices at the pump skyrocketing out of control, we want to do this more than ever, but how can this be done?

You don’t control how much a gallon of gas costs, but you can control how often you have to stop to fill up. While you’re not going to change your big V8 truck into a small fuel-sipping hybrid with changes to your driving habits, you can improve the fuel mileage you receive by how you drive. That’s right; your driving habits impact the overall fuel economy you experience when you drive. Here are some tips to help you maximize your fuel range.

Remove the Junk from the Trunk

Is there some extra baggage weighing you down? Did you forget that you had a couple of bags of sand in the back from the winter months? It’s time to lighten the load and remove some of the gear from the trunk. While it’s good to carry some emergency items with you, there are likely many items inside your car that you don’t need to have in that area. Take everything out you don’t need, and you’ll see an improvement in your overall fuel mileage.

Can You Reduce Your Commute?

Does your employer offer the opportunity to work from home a few days a week? If so, you can easily save some gas by simply not driving that day. Even if you only reduce this by one day per week, that’s a 20% savings over what you were facing previously. If you can’t work from home, maybe you could carpool with a colleague and share the cost of gas. This would benefit both of you.

Are There Places You Could Walk to Instead of Driving?

The easiest way to save gas is to leave your car at home. If you don’t drive, you’re saving gas. While this isn’t always logical, and some people live too far away from anything to walk or ride a bike, these are better options. If you don’t have to drive, then don’t. Walk around the block to your grocery store for a few items, or take your bike to the convenience store for the stuff you need.

Cut Down on the Idling of Your Car

If your vehicle is equipped with an automatic stop/start feature in the engine, make sure it’s working and turned on. This will save you a little gas every time you stop at a stop sign or light. Even if you don’t have this feature, you can cut down on the idling of your car. That doesn’t mean you should shut it down at every light, but you should turn it off when you run into a convenience store or while running errands.

Be More Conservative About Your Driving

Look farther down the road and anticipate your driving needs better. Hard accelerating and braking use more gas than if you can ease to the proper speed or slow more gently to a stop. You need to save gas, and driving with a little more anticipation can make this possible. The more you can glide and coast, the less fuel you’ll use during your drive. This tip helps save fuel but also makes your brake pads last much longer, which allows you to save a little more money in the process.

You Don’t Need to be First

Do you have a habit of accelerating from a green light to be ahead of the car next to you? Why do you do this? There’s nothing gained by accelerating hard from a stoplight. If you often do this to change lanes, this is a habit you need to fix right away. Drive a little more patiently, make sure you’re in the lane you want when you’re at the stoplight, and accelerate gently when the light turns green.

Stick to Your Lane and Set the Cruise Control

If you want to save five minutes of time, you must travel for an entire hour at five miles per hour faster than you would normally. Is that small amount of time worth it? The amount of time you can save is dramatically reduced when you travel across town and not on a highway. Pick a lane, set the cruise control, and enjoy the music while you save gas. Doing this will improve not only your fuel consumption but your blood pressure as well.

Start Using the HOV Lane

We mentioned carpooling, but we didn’t cover all of the benefits earlier. One benefit is that you can drive in the HOV lane during your normal commute. If you live in an area where such a lane exists, you know this lane moves much faster than the rest of the highway traffic. That means you can get to work a little quicker than your coworkers stuck in the regular lanes because they didn’t choose to save gas and create a carpool.

Can You Change Your Work Schedule?

This is a tactic that has been used by many government employees around Washington, D.C., for a long time. Instead of sitting in the regular rush-hour traffic, if you can go to work earlier or later, you could avoid traffic jams and slowdowns that end to cut into your fuel economy. The best thing to do is find out from your employer if this is a possibility. Imagine the savings if you can drive during off-peak hours, work from home one day a week, and carpool.

You Have Nothing to Prove When You Drive

The open road is not the place to start racing, especially if your main goal is to save gas. Professional drivers often drive carefully when they aren’t on the track because they are surrounded by inexperienced people that don’t drive for a living. You don’t have anything to prove to the rest of the world other than the fact that you can be safe on the road. Forget the idea of road racing and see how much gas you can save when you drive conservatively.

Use these ten tips to save gas and drive better. You’ll fill up less often and notice a considerable difference in what you spend to maintain your vehicle.