Tag: car

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Hypermiling

A few weeks ago, my friend small_pond wrote about how she was starting to adopt some hypermiling habits while commuting, and I wanted to add my two cents about my fuel economy as well. As the gas prices have gotten higher and higher this summer, I know that more and more people in this country have started to change their behavior when it comes to gas usage. While I’m not thrilled at having to pay more at the gas pump, I truly believe that it’s a good thing that oil and gas prices have gotten to the point where people are finally taking a look at what they can do to conserve energy.

What do I do to save fuel?

  1. I bought a new car.  I wouldn’t recommend this as an easy way to save gas and money, obviously. In my case, the old Saturn was starting to fall apart and become more expensive to maintain than it was worth. instead of staying within the American-made GM/Saturn family (we were an all-Saturn household for many years), I looked for an affordable car that got great gas mileage. Hybrids were tempting, but a little out of my price range, so I settled on the Honda Fit, which gets almost as good (if not sometimes better!) mileage on the highway.
  2. I keep track of my mileage. For anyone who has been following my Twitter posts, occasionally you’ll see something that starts with @fuelfrog, and then a bunch of numbers.  Fuelfrog is a very simplistic application that simply tracks how good your mileage is.  Every time I fuel up, I text Fuelfrog (through Twitter) how many miles I’ve driven, the price per gallon, and number of gallons purchased.  Fuelfrog then takes those numbers and makes a nifty graph that gives me insight into how my driving habits influence my fuel efficiency.  It doesn’t do much other than make a graph, but it’s neat, and it keeps me aware of how much gas I’m using.
  3. Hypermiling.  Yes, I coast and try not to brake too suddenly or gun the engine to accelerate quickly.  But I don’t try to stay under 65 mph or draft behind trucks to lessen wind resistance.  I also haven’t been keeping paying special attention to my tire pressure, since it’s a fairly new car.  However, Sunday morning, which was the first cold morning of the season, an indicator lit up on my dashboard to tell me my tire pressure was low.  Apparently, if I had just driven a few miles, the tire would have warmed up and the light would have probably gone off, but I didn’t want to take any chances and I drove to the nearest gas station to fill up the tires.  Now that I actually know how to put air in my tires (yes, I am a dumb girl and couldn’t figure out the air pump for a good five minutes), I’m thinking of investing in a tire pressure gauge, so I can keep my tires at an optimum pressure at all times.
  4. I lighten the load.  I don’t usually leave a whole lot of stuff in my car anymore.  Trash gets taken out regularly (mostly), and if I have books or boxes, they come into the house as soon as I get home.  Where before I would drive around with tons of binders in the back seat or trunk, now I only take what I need and no more.  The lower the weight, the better the mileage.

So those are my tips for good fuel economy.  Of course, ideally, we should all not be using our cars at all, but since I live a good 10 miles from the nearest rehearsal site, I don’t think I’ll be walking or biking to work any time soon.

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Crash

Yesterday, the airwaves were filled with dire warnings of a winter storm. It was going to snow, they said, but later it would get cold enough where everything would turn to ice. Now, I’ve weathered a many a winter storm since I moved to the East Coast back in 1992…in fact, my first storm was a Nor’easter in Boston that left the tree branches encased in ice. Beautiful, but very cold and very dangerous.

But until now, I’ve been fortunate enough to not have to drive in a winter storm. Usually by the time the weathermen are predicting the coming of the ice age, I am already well-ensconced in my cocoon of blankets, sipping on hot tea. Not so last night.

I was on my way from work to pick up a little dinner before heading into Philadelphia to sing the roles of Flora and Annina in La Traviata at the High Note Cafe, when I skidded on some black ice and ran into a telephone pole. But it didn’t end there; hitting the pole only sent me back into the street to end up facing the wrong way on the shoulder.

Now, before you start worrying, I wasn’t really going that quickly, so the impact was really not bad at all.  I’m fine, I didn’t hit anyone, and the car doesn’t even have a dent (you’ve gotta love those plastic Saturns!).  But it did shake me up a bit.

After making sure my car was, indeed, okay, I made my way SLOWLY to the place I was planning on grabbing some dinner.  I phoned Ray and told him what happened, and he told me I should ask whether or not the show was still on.  I had never thought of that.  Why would someone cancel a show because of weather?  And why would I not continue on my journey?  I mean, don’t they say “the show must go on” for a reason?  I inwardly guffawed, but I called the guy in charge just to make sure.

The show manager said there was no change, and that the show would go on.  He seemed concerned when I told him I ran into a telephone pole, but not so concerned, obviously, to tell me to go home.  I expected that reaction and ordered my food and studied my music.

About 20 minutes later, Ray called again and told me that NJ emergency management was telling everyone to get off the roads and go home.  He said I should call the show manager again and tell him I wasn’t coming.  Although I was loathe to do it, Ray convinced me by telling me the traffic was so bad that it would have taken me 2-3 hours to make the normally 30-minute trip in (and besides, he said, I was worth a lot more to him in one piece than any money I could have made on this gig).  I called the show manager, who was very clearly upset.  But in the end, he understood, and told me that depending on who showed up, they might just do a concert of highlights from the opera.  Good idea, I thought, as I packed up my things and started my journey home.

In the ten miles between the restaurant and my house, I don’t think I drove faster than 25 MPH.  It’s possible that when I got on the highway, I was cruising at 30, but that was definitely my top speed.  And when I got home, Ray told me he was happy I was safe, and I wrapped myself in my cocoon of blankets and sipped hot tea.