SAVE GAS MONEY WITH CRUISE CONTROL
Folks should think of
their cruise control as a gas saving tool. Some folks never use their cruise
control. Other folks use them just to reduce driver fatigue. The best way to
use cruse control is to set it at or near the speed limit when you are driving
down the highway and leave it alone.
The
problem with humans is that we get acclimated to speed and unintentionally
speed up over time.
Check yourself on this. When you first make the jump from city street speed to highway speed the highway speed limit seems to be plenty fast enough. But, after you have driven along for fifteen or twenty minutes you become used to that speed and are ready for more.
The same thing happens in reverse. When we exit the expressway the city street speed limit seems way too slow until our brain gets adjusted to it.
Using the cruise control helps keep our speed under control.
Keeping your speed under control is one of the best ways to reduce the money you spend at the gas pump. Fuel use goes up faster than the speed goes up. If I drive without the cruise control on my speed on expressways starts out at 65 and creeps up toward 80 unless I hold it down.
When I first started driving the expressway speed limit in
Back in the 1970’s, during the oil embargo days, the speed limit was dropped to a maximum of 55 all across the country to save fuel. I remember truckers would drive alongside each other at 55 and cause huge traffic backups on the expressways as a protest against the lower speeds.
We may be headed that way again if some of our elected representatives have their way.
Using cruise control on flat roads can save gas money, but in hill country, you can do better with it off. Cruise control systems have gotten better but they still tend to over accelerate going up hill. They keep increasing the throttle until the car speeds up to the set speed. When you control the speed, you can save gas by allowing the car to slow down on the up hill run and the get the speed back when you coast down the other side of the hill. That saves gas.
If your ride does not have cruise control,
borrow one.
When I drive a car that does not have cruise control I pick out another truck or car that is going the speed that I want and follow them. As long as they keep a steady speed and I don’t pass them, my speed stays in control.
Expect to change to a different leader because the one you are following may be going somewhere you don’t want to go.
You save at the gas pump
when you keep your speed down.
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