9 Ways to Save Gas

Oh gasoline, how we love to hate you, and hate to depend on you. With all the environmental issues, questionable practices of big oil companies, and the outrageous expense, it can be painful to watch the price climb higher and higher at the gas pump. Yet, at the same time, if you depend on your car to get around, you can’t really avoid forking over the big bucks at the gas station. There are ways to reduce your fuel consumption, however! Read on for tips on saving gasoline.

Knock it Off With the Lead Foot

In response to the 1973 oil crisis, the U.S. Congress barred federal funding for any transportation projects where the speed limit would be over 55 MPH. Why? Well, if you go any faster than that, you use more gas. If you’re traveling at speeds over 35-45 miles per hour, you save 5-10% of your fuel economy by reducing your speed by 5 MPH.

Check Your Tires

A fully-inflated tire is a happy tire. One test showed that an under-inflated tire lost 1.3 miles per gallon in fuel economy.

Park in the Shade

Nobody likes a hot car on a sunny day — including the car itself! Hot and sunny weather can make emissions evaporate so find a garage, shady spot, or keep a windshield shade handy.

Earlier: Dollar Stores: What to Buy & What to Avoid

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Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

Dale O.

8:22AM PDT on Jul 31, 2012

Yes, one commenter mentioned the delightful cruise control which keeps me on a steady and even keel while driving long distances!

Not all of us can take public transit if living in a small town which does not provide it, especially in rural areas-walking is just not an option at times.

July 31
send a green star

Why is it when I am on google chrome my comments never take and on firefox it does, this is ridiculous--and speaking of ridiculous why does Ursula have to hit the "add comment" bar twenty million times-I realize that there are times when a comment does not take and one hits it again the second or maybe third time-I just log out and come in again while grumping, but Ursula has hit the add comment bar far too many times. We can all read it once.
If my previous comment shows up at least it will not be one word like" thxs" or "interesting" hit a zillion times to take up space or maybe wrack up the points, who knows. Enough of my whining.

What I tried to say before is that some of us live in small towns or rural areas where there is no bus or public transit available and walking long distances is not always an option especially when it is -30 out there with howling winds and the wind chill factor -50.

Same goes for parking cars in a shady spot-the parking lot provided has no trees for shade.

Am guilty of having tons of stuff in my car which adds on weight!

Is there any way we can delete our comments after posting-posted the same comment three times which is annoying, only wanted to post it once-Care2 mentioned the site would be undergoing maintenance after 9 pm Pacific time-was on long before the maintenance and after posting the comment did not appear, so logged out and went on a different search engine and the comment also did not appear, now it is there three times-driving me batty. I know this happens when someone has two or three -- when someone has well over 19 of the same one then I get puzzled but I certainly would like to delete the other two and just leave one-any one technical here have any idea how to do this?

Vicky B.

8:41AM PDT on Jun 25, 2012

my advise is to use as much as public transport, you will save gas as well as parking space.