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Friday, October 7, 2011

Last week, the Globe carried a Page 1 story about people known as “Hypermilers” who, a headline said, “nurse every last drop of gas,” often by coasting.

Now coasting, especially down steep hills, is not a good thing to do: It’s dangerous because you don’t have as much control over your car, and in some places, it’s illegal.

But the story did point out some perfectly safe and perfectly legal things drivers can do to save gas. One, of course, is to buy a hybrid but not all of us can afford to do that at the moment.

But much of what they do is, as Globe writer Beth Teitell wrote, “no more than common sense and a Zen approach to the road.”

For instance:

When the light turns red, take your foot off of the gas peddle and just let the car roll up to the light. No, you can’t do that from half a mile away, you won’t get there (unless you’re driving far too fast to begin with). You have to be sensible. The key is to only use as much gas as you must in order to make it to the light. If your timing is great, you’ll still be moving toward the light when it turns green.

Then, when you take off from the light, don’t TAKE OFF from the light. Accelerate slowly. If the speed limit is 35, don’t rush like a looney to get to 35; take your time. You’ll get there. Slamming down on the gas pedal wastes gas.

Here’s the Zen part: Don’t concern yourself with what other drivers are doing. If they are racing to get to the red light, let them get there first. Wow, you got to the red light first. YOU THE MAN! Fine. Let him be THE MAN. What do you care? He’s wasting gas and that makes him THE DUMB MAN.

The key, though, is to be careful. One of the dangerous things that some hypermilers do is take corners without braking even slightly. The idea, of course, is that you can coast further if you don’t use the brake to slow down even a little. Well, that can get you killed, so don’t do it.

And coasting down hills is not safe, either. Suppose you have to accelerate quickly? Well, if you’re in neutral, good luck with that. Or suppose you have to decelerate quickly? If you’re in gear, the car helps. It will be decelerating while your foot heads for the brake.

Just do the common sense things.

We’d all like to hit the lottery so we don’t have to worry about nickle and dime things but until we do, saving a few pennies on gas isn’t a bad thing.

And it gives you a chance to laugh at the bozos who are racing like crazy to get to that red light first.

Yea! They win! (Except they don’t.)