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Slowing down your driving is a major factor in slowing down your fuel consumption. It consists of more than just slowing down your top speed while on the highway, it also means slowing down your take-offs and letting off the accelerator sooner when approaching a stop.

In the same way as when you turn on your water faucet, when you depress the accelerator pedal it opens a valve to allow the fuel to flow through to the engine. Likewise, the more you push the pedal, the farther it opens the valve and the more fuel flows through. When you pull away from a stop sign with the pedal pushed to the floor or close to it, you are burning more fuel than you need to.

In these tough economic times everyone is looking for ways to cut costs anywhere possible. Lighten up on the accelerator. Driving at 60 miles per hour on the highway can lower your consumption by about 5 miles per gallon. It doesn't sound like a whole lot unless you take into consideration that 100 miles of highway driving at 25 miles to the gallon would get you an extra 20 miles of driving on the same amount of fuel.

Road rage, as we all know, is reaching a critical level. It is also one of the biggest reasons for excess fuel usage there is. When a person is angered by another driver and punches the accelerator to speed past them, only to hit the brakes and perform their little sign-language maneuver, they have just sucked enough fuel to drive about 15 miles.

There are many ways to save on fuel costs. Slowing down is one of the major ones. Driving slower is also much safer. There are too many deaths caused everyday due to someone making a mistake and someone else not having enough reaction time to save themselves.

Along with slowing down, you can help your fuel economy by shutting off your engine in places where you will sitting and idling for an extended time such as train crossings, drive-thru lines, and traffic jams. When you are traveling, rethink your packing to include only those things which you will need. The more weight in you vehicle the more fuel it will consume. Aerodynamics is also an important factor. A loaded roof rack can increase your fuel consumption by as much as 5 percent.

When you are driving remember that your fuel economy, or lack thereof, depends almost entirely on you. Your driving habits, you vehicle load, and routine maintenance are essential to good fuel economy. Slow down. It saves fuel and lives.

Learn more about this author, Wendy Lafond.
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