"Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it."
Mark Twain's famous quip could easily be applied to gas prices. Everybody talks about high gas prices, but what can the average person really do?
Quite a lot, actually.
(READ MORE: Gas prices up 65% from a year ago)
Posting your frustrations on Facebook might make you feel better (and serve nominally to hold politicians' feet to the fire), but there are practical fuel-saving strategies that will absolutely help you survive the current gas shock.
Here are a few ways to start saving today:
- Consider driving the speed limit and using cruise control. According to U.S. Department of Energy statistics, these strategies alone can, on average, make your driving about 22% more efficient. At $4.50 per gallon, that's about $1 a gallon in cost savings just by tweaking your driving habits. Imagine if a Chattanooga gas station were selling gas for $3.50 a gallon last week. It would have been overrun.
- Remember that annoying "start-stop" feature on your new truck that you disabled immediately after purchase? Well, turn it back on. It could save you big money by automatically shutting off the engine for a few seconds when you are at a stop light or bogged down in traffic. According to the Society of Automotive Engineers, the start-stop feature can make your car about 8% more efficient in heavy traffic. That's equal to about 36 cents per gallon in savings (with gas around $4.50 per gallon).
- As aversion therapy, keep a $10 bill in your center console, and every time you crank your vehicle, imagine throwing it out the passenger-side window. It will help you avoid impulse errands, like driving to the convenience store at midnight to satisfy a chocolate craving. On the other hand, if you don't mind paying $12 for a Snickers bar, by all means go for it.
- Clean out your trunk. When engineers design new cars, they fret over every ounce of added weight because it's bad for fuel economy. Then we come along and store three cases of bottled water, a dead car battery and a 40-pound bag of dog food in the trunk - or truck bed. D'oh! Every 100 pounds of cargo you shed increases fuel economy by about 1%, according to government estimates. Not much, but it all adds up.
- Subjectively, try not to worry too much about the long term. High fuel prices come and go. Expensive gasoline is radioactive for politicians so they tend to pull out all the stops to fix the problem.
- Fear not, the media will keep high gas prices in the headlines. Most news topics have a short life cycle, but high gas prices are like weather stories - they are perennially popular with legacy media. Sadly, if you lose you job, nobody but your family will care. But if you want to deliver a slobbery rant on gas prices, alert the media and somebody with a microphone may show up at your door.
- Think before you drive. It just takes a little planning to consolidate shopping trips. And if your workplace offers a work-at-home (or hybrid) option, it's obviously in your interest to take advantage.
- When you return from vacation, get that cargo carrier off the roof of your vehicle. On the highway, it reduces fuel efficiency by about 10%. That's 45 cents per gallon. Yikes.
- It's always dicey to make long-term major purchases on short-term price swings, but as a longtime automotive writer, my advice is that those searching for relief at the pumps look first to hybrid vehicles instead of full EVs. For the last 15 years, I've driven midsize hybrid sedans (as my personal daily drivers) that get 38-40 miles per gallon.
EVs are great, but the technology is not fully mature and the charging network is still in the build-out stage. In my Ford Fusion hybrid, I can drive to Destin, Florida, on one tank of gas.
Email Mark Kennedy at mkennedy@timesfreepress.com.