by Mark Disessa

Created on: July 11, 2008

I just recently finished a two month and 11222 miles cross country road trip. I drive a 2003 Mitsubishi Galant which averages 25 mph on the highway. I lost some overall mph while in cities or traffic, but gained some back using simple methods while driving. I burned approximately 450 gallons of gas and estimate that I paid approximately an average of $3.92 per gallon of gas for a total of $1764 dollars. Despite the high cost of gasoline this road trip although expensive was still worth the journey and was certainly cheaper than an alternative of attempting to use the airlines to conduct a similar trip, and provided more freedom of movement than had I attempted to use busses or railroads. There are lots of ways to save some money on gas while on a road trip, some of which I used, some of which I did not.

1. Pay attention to where you are. The cost of gas may change by as much as a dollar between one gas station in one point of the country and another. But especially near state lines and large metropolitan areas it is well worth using an online comparison website such as http://www.gasbuddy.com/. Even a difference of only a few miles can significantly increase the cost of gas around these areas.

2. Use cruise control. Constant acceleration and worse deceleration or brake usage waste precious energy and gas that should be used to move you smoothly along your way. And when accelerating don't just slam the gas, slowly accelerating will use less gas to get to the same speed and only really cost you a few seconds longer on your trip.

3. Don't' speed. Engines are vastly more fuel efficient at lower speeds than higher speed. Following the speed limit is safe and makes economic sense. During the 11,000+ miles of my trip I averaged no more than 4-5 mph over the speed limit, but even at those speeds I was seldom passed by other drivers as many seem to recognize now the economic sense of it.
4. When planning a trip if there is a major city in your path that you don't plan to visit, map a path around them. You never know when a GPS might think the road is quicker through a city, only to find out that you spend hours in traffic slowly wasting gas as you idle and creep along at 5 mph.

5. Don't try to save gas by not using your air conditioning. If you're simply going to replace the air conditioning with opening your windows you're fighting a losing game. Opening the windows only ruins your aerodynamics and you lose at least if not more gas efficiency. Plus you become less comfortable, which means less attentive, which means less safe while attempting to drive.

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