In the war on high gas prices and carbon emissions, it's important to look for success stories wherever they can be found. In this article, Adrian Reif shares his small, yet exciting, victory.

The gas light came on in my car on Saturday on my way to the grocery store. Immediately I was repulsed when thinking about filling up with gas. After reflecting for a moment, I realized why: It had been five weeks since I put gas in my car.

After navigating my memory bank and credit card statement, I discovered that my last fill up was over a month ago, and I hadn't visited a gas station since. No, I don't drive a fancy hybrid. And no, I didn't buy a Smart fortwo (on my list of things to do though). But, I am saving up for a Vespa-like scooter (it gets 80-90 mpg!!!).

I drive a 1996 Grand Am with 140,000 miles (mpg 27 city/35 hwy). Here's what I did:

• I planned trips in advance and batched my errands. For example, when deciding to go to the grocery several miles away, I would also make my recycling trip, drop by the post office, and go the nearby YMCA - all in the same trip. Making less single errand trips greatly reduced my miles traveled.
  
• I drove a bit slower. Seriously, who's in a hurry? Conservative driving saves on gas and wear and tear and I don't get in any accidents!
  
• I walked the line. Actually, I just walked anywhere within 1 mile from my house. Thankfully that includes Starbucks, Panera, Walgreens, Borders, and even my office. If you have this luxury, walking becomes quite fun.
  
• I hopped on my bike. My bike has more than paid for itself. I bike anywhere within 5-6 miles (unless there are torrential rains or I have to wear a suit). This includes my YMCA (I've found that a four-mile bike ride is perfect warmup for weight lifting), Toastmasters meetings (also four miles), and Ultimate frisbee practice/games (close to five miles). I've found great bike routes that are safer than busy traffic and get me there in just as much time as slow driving. And in response to another myth, the breeze from riding keeps me from sweating profusely.
  
• I took some COOL advice. If you drive more you can still do stuff like getting excess weight out of your trunk, scheduling proper tire maintenance, and more. You can find a nice list here.

After a quick, but thorough, back-of-the-napkin calculation, I cut my normal driving by almost half. This means I spent $45 on gas instead of $90. As a result, I feel much healthier and wealthier, enjoy my morning walks in the fresh air, see more of the city, and stay out of the baneful traffic.

When I finally had to fill up, I only pumped 5 gallons of gas and aspire to stretch them as far as possible. I hope you enjoyed this and maybe you, too, can save some money (and CO2).

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Comments

Stephen commented, on June 20, 2008 at 9:28 a.m.:

I've read some on "hypermiling" and am attempting to get 500 miles to my current tank of gas.

Some interesting tips here (http://www.hypermiling.com/cruise-contro...).

And a good rule of thumb for slow acceleration -- pretend there's an egg between your foot and the gas pedal. It'll take you a bit longer to get up to the speed limit, but what's a few seconds when you're looking at $4 gasoline?

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