{sigh} I had to turn down an invite to meet SDXB and NG in the West Valley on Friday. They want to go to some goofy event at the Ben Avery Range where enthusiasts of antique guns get dressed up in Wild West clothes. I’m sure it’ll be fun, but I just can’t afford the gasoline to drive out there.
Gas is now over $3.25 a gallon here. I paid $3.29 for an emergency purchase, shelling out $15 to get to where I needed to go before I could afford to fill up the tank. When this month’s budget cycle restarted, on Monday, Costco was charging just $3.11 at the outlet where I filled up; that racked up $40.
I’ve budgeted $100 a month for gasoline, but that would normally cover only trips to and from the college and the four trips to Scottsdale I have to make each month. But this week I’ve had an extraordinary number of schleps to the East Valley: Earlier this week to Scottsdale Fashion Square to pick up a little ottoman I’d ordered months ago from Crate & Barrel; then today to the Mayo at 140th Street and Shea, an unholy long drive that will be stretched because I have to come back by way of McDowell Road, many many miles south of Shea Boulevard; then out to Scottsdale again tomorrow to give a dog & pony show to my business group, then race to the client’s to pick up some work, then fly back up to the campus at 32nd Street and Union Hills.
Ugh. Most of today and tomorrow will be spent driving, and I’m guessing all those junkets will burn half to three-quarters of a tank of gas.
This morning’s journey to the Mayo will take place during the darkest rush hour (driving into the sun, naturally), and so hypermiling will be pretty much out of the question. In a culture where normal people charge up to signals at 45 mph and then jam on the brakes at the red light, drifting toward a light with your foot off the gas freaking drives your fellow homicidal roadhogs screaming insane.
Some of our fellow citizens around here are literally homicidal, so one has to be careful.
You’ll recall “hypermiling” from the 2008 run-up in gas prices, right? The idea is to get around using as little gas as possible by applying an array of conservation techniques to your car and driving habits:
• Try to avoid applying the brakes any more than absolutely necessary. Watch the traffic flow ahead and, when red lights start to glow, coast to decelerate. Try to reach traffic stopped at the light as it’s beginning to move, so you don’t have to start up from a dead stop.
• Accelerate from a stop slowly. It’s a car, not a jackrabbit.
• When starting from a dead stop, allow the car to idle forward for a second before stepping on the gas.
• Use the cruise control to maintain speed on the freeway and on steadily moving surface streets, and use it to accelerate and decelerate. Use the “coast” and “acc” functions to slow and speed gently. Try to keep your foot off the gas pedal as much as possible. But n.b.: don’t use cruise control on an uphill grade.
• When approaching a grade, speed up a little (stay sane about this) to build momentum; then allow the car to slow as it climbs. Use the downhill grade to get back up to your cruising speed before resuming the cruise control.
• Never drive faster than 60 mph on an urban freeway. Try to keep your speed at around 55 mph. Stay in the slow lane and take it easy.
• If it looks like you will have to stand for more than 30 seconds (for example, at a long stoplight, in a gas station line, at a railroad crossing), turn off the engine.
Using these techniques, I’ve managed to extract about 25 mpg from my aged Toyota Sienna. That’s not bad, since it normally makes about 16 mpg in the city, and maybe 20 on the open road. But it’s still expensive to drive to Hell and back every day.
The real trick to hypermiling? Stay out of your car!
😉
Prices just jumped to $3.35 a gallon here yesterday, almost a quarter increase! I have made some forms of hypermilling automatically. I always pay attention to the lights in front of me and try to decide how best to handle the acceleration. The problem is that every light in our city is camera controlled so you can’t predict with a high degree of certainty what the computer is going to decide to do. You’ll be coasting along because the light turned red, but it’ll turn green again within seconds, and then you’ll miss that light if it too is a short cycle. I work only three miles from home so I am lucky right now to only need gas once every few weeks, but my wife, who does all the driving around town in the kid-friendly SUV, is who sees the biggest pain at the pump!
@ Money Beagle: For sure, car-pooling, schlepping to activities, and shopping for a family are gas-intensive activities! We’re lucky here that Our City Parents have arranged to time most of the lights on the city streets, that speed limits on the surface streets are outrageously high, and that cops are scarcer than hen’s teeth. Most drivers cruise at about 50 mph on the surface arterials and about 40 mph in neighborhoods. In a 45 mph zone, you’ll hit every light green if you’re going 50. Of course, people die on those roads now and then…but, in the inimitable style of our esteemed governor responding to the death of a poor person she and her cohorts had shucked off the public healthcare system, {shrug}.
We do commute to work (about 30 miles each way), but that is only twice a week. One advantage to living in a small town is that everything there is very close. We could even walk to the grocery. I am definitely going to consider walkabilty when looking into retirement locales. Your Willo neighborhood has a 68 walkability rating; I think that’s pretty good.
But honestly, it’s awful that you couldn’t go out for the fun. Maybe factor a few of those tips a month into your computations??? Wait a while to pick up the ottoman?
@ frugal scholar: Actually, I was going to wait until today (Wednesday) to pick up the ottoman. However, at the last minute I decided to go to an awesome performance by the Phoenix Chorale on Sunday afternoon at a church in the fancy part of town. When I got there I realized the place was more than halfway to Scottsdale, and, since I wasn’t looking forward to adding yet another errand to today’s adventures, decided to just drive over there and grab it. Good thing: after fasting from 3:00 p.m. yesterday until noon today, when I finally sprang free from the Mayo, the last thing I felt like doing was driving to any extra pillars and posts.
Willo is highly walkable, except that there are no grocery stores within walking distance and only one that you would use regularly. When my ex- and I lived there, I used to drive between six and twelve miles every week or ten days to get decent produce and good meat. It’s “walkable” in the sense that it’s a pretty area that’s pleasant to walk around in (as long as you have a big dog or a man at your side), that there’s a nice park where you can hang out (ditto), and it’s close to the lightrail line, the Heard Museum, the Phoenix Art Museum, and the main city library.
Gas prices here are $3.60. The rise in price has me definitely thinking about cutting back even more on my driving. I’ve cut way back as it is … I don’t drive to visit friends anywhere near as often as I used to but it’s a choice I’m forced to make because of the necessity in sticking to a budget. I live out in the middle of nowhere, a satellite town in the high desert (because of a job), and it’s 50 miles in ANY direction just to hit civilization.
At this point I have put myself on a gas diet–$20/wk. I put in $20 each week. If I fill the tank, I think I have gas to spare. Yes, I know it would be better to have a full tank so it does not evaporate.
My goal is to make an extra $50/mth by selling some of the items I have earmarked for sale anyway.
Since the gas price rose to $3.09 Monday here in AL, the gas diet imposes restrictions on driving. As gas goes up, I can drive less. So far, this is working. If I drive a long distance to visit a friend, I sit at home the next week. This diet has worked for about three or four months.
Another goal for bringing in money is to get $60/mth in money owed to me for writing.
Since I am now drawing SS and disability, I do not have to be at a job. In a way, that helps with the gas situation.
Most weeks, I actually drive for 8 or 9 days on the $20 of gas. Since I have my heart set on a patio umbrella, I may just sit home all but two days a week.
This city sits on the intersection of two state highways. Yes, I can walk in the ditches since there are few sidewalks. Walking brings me mostly to boutiques and attorneys. A car is necessary for groceries and such.
I’m lucky that I have a 7-block commute & live in a small town, so I do well to use 10 gallons of gasoline in the average a month. But here in central California prices are always about 50 cents higher per gallon than the quoted national average due to our added taxes & fees.