By Christal Padilla

Six years ago when I bought my current car I really wanted a hybrid vehicle.  Unfortunately the wait for the then-newish technology was 20 months (give or take) and my car at the time would not last that long.  So, I got the next-best thing in a fuel-efficient vehicle with just enough room and cargo space for our family.  I have often wondered if, environmentally speaking, I should trade in my decent vehicle for a more virtuous hybrid now that they are more readily available.  However, financially-speaking, my car is paid off and our expendable income is a bit, let’s say, less expendable, these days.

So, how can you be greener (or ish) if you can’t afford to buy a new vehicle, or simply can’t squash your family and all their soccer gear, dance shoes, groceries and pets into a Prius or Insight?

Well, here’s the good news according to Andrew Davis of the Environmental Transport Association, a UK organization that studies environmental transportation issues: “Of all the main environmental variables involved with buying a car . . . it is the length of time a car is kept that is crucial. . .”  Davis’ point is that whatever kind of car you have, you should keep it for its entire useful life, as each day you own the same vehicle essentially lessens the carbon footprint used to plan, produce and transport that vehicle.

Davis also adds that “how and when you drive is far more important than what type of car you buy.”  Regardless of what vehicle you drive as long you maintain it and drive it efficiently, you can reduce your pollution contribution.  He is referring to “hypermiling” which means, simply, maximizing gas mileage through a combination of adjustments to one’s vehicle and one’s driving habits.

So, what exactly is hypermiling, you ask? First, it is important to make sure your vehicle itself is running as efficiently as possible by tracking your gas mileage, keeping it tuned up, making sure your tires are inflated properly, getting rid of extra cargo and removing roof racks and bike carriers when not in use.  Secondly, you need to change how you drive.  This is the hard part, trust me.

Full disclosure: I have always been a fast driver.  Just ask my high school Driver’s Ed teacher who named me lead-foot Smalley the first day of instruction.  Also, I am nearly always in a hurry and am usually distracted on some level while driving.  This is not good, I know, but it is not uncommon either.  When child A gets out of school at 3:30 and child B has dance lessons at 3:45 clear across town, some of the techniques required to hypermile seem impossible.  However, over the last month, I have made a genuine attempt with increasing levels of success.  According to fueleconomy.gov my car should get an average of 27 mpg and I have been able to increase that on average by about 6% to 28.65.  Not the 30% that some say is possible, but it’s a start.

Generally, fuel economy is maximized when acceleration and braking are minimized. So hypermilers attempt to anticipate what is happening ahead, and drive in such a way so as to minimize acceleration and braking, and maximize coasting time. Idling for any reason is to be avoided because, guess how many miles per gallon you get when you are standing still?  That’s right, zero (this means no drive-thru folks). Hypermilers believe that they can even lessen congestion with well-timed application of the techniques.

To hypermile you:

1.     Use your cruise control for highway driving whenever possible.  A consistent speed will net better miles-per-gallon.

2.     Accelerate slowly.  It is recommended that you push down the gas pedal no more than half an inch when accelerating.  Warning – this can seem maddeningly slow if you are not used to driving this way, and people behind you won’t like it.

3.     Don’t drive aggressively.  Mashing down the gas pedal which floods the engine with more gas than is really needed, then slamming on the brakes, negating the momentum you just used that gas to achieve, is truly the least efficient way to drive.

4.     Coasting to a stop or into a slowdown is ideal.  This way, you are using the momentum you already gained, instead of more fuel only to stop or slow down using your breaks.  This requires that you pay attention, think ahead, and observe a fairly large following distance.   This, by the way, is impossible when talking on your phone, yelling at your kids, or going over your to-do list. Again, people behind you aren’t going to like it, so toughen up and ignore those tailgaters.

5.     Don’t speed.  Gas mileage decreases dramatically over 60 miles per hour and the faster you drive the less likely you will be able to anticipate slowdowns and stops, making braking more necessary.

6.     Be courteous to your fellow travelers.  Not allowing other cars to merge may seem like the best idea when you’re in a hurry, but it only makes the other drivers behave more aggressively, leading to people cutting each other off and thus, more brake slamming.  Traffic congestion is not only caused by how many vehicles are on the road, it is directly affected by how those vehicles are being driven.  If everyone could merge and move along smoothly the daily slowdowns would be much shorter and a lot less frustrating.

7.     Avoid driving during peak traffic hours.  Obvious, but easier said than done.

These strategies, like many environmental tactics, are fine when one person uses them, but their effects grow exponentially as more people join in.  For example, if, let’s say, one-third of the people on the Reno freeway at rush hour practiced hypermiling, then congestion would be reduced, allowing smoother merging and less need for quick braking, thus increasing fuel economy for everyone as a whole. This then would reduce demand for oil, which we know is a major environmental problem.  And, similarly, if enough people kept their vehicles for their full useful life, demand for new vehicles would be reduced, saving vast amounts of precious resources and keeping more cars out of landfills.

So, I’m going to continue my efforts to hypermile and keep my car as long as it will cooperate.  And maybe when I need a new vehicle, alternative fuel technology and local public transportation will have made such great advances that my choices will be more and simpler.  Come on and join me.  I’ll give you a friendly wave instead of a fist shake when I see you slowly coasting to a stop.

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