Jul 3, 2008 10:00 pm US/Mountain
Hypermiling Grows In Popularity In Colorado
Driving Technique Saves Money By Conserving Fuel
Written by Paul Day
Reporting
Paul Day
HIGHLANDS RANCH, Colo. (CBS4) ―
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With fuel at $4 per gallon, saving gas by driving smart is part of a growing trend called "Hypermiling."
CBS
A growing number of commuters are making skillful changes in the way they drive to save money and conserve fuel in this era of skyrocketing gas prices.
"It's made a difference; I've increased my gas mileage more than 20 percent," claims Brian Olson of Highlands Ranch.
Olson says he carefully follows several well known ways to improve fuel economy, starting with obeying the speed limit.
"I love to go fast, that was my problem," he says.
Olson also says he's now gentle on the accelerator and no longer stomps on the gas peddle, as he used to do, when pulling onto highways. He also coasts whenever possible.
Olson also maintains a greater distance between the car ahead of him to avoid braking unnecessarily.
All of these tips have been around for decades but were rarely practiced in a the by-gone era of cheap gas. With fuel at $4 per gallon, saving gas by driving smart is part of a growing trend called hypermiling.
Olson's 5-cylinder Volvo wagon used to average 23 miles per gallon, but hypermiling has improved his gas mileage.
"The first day I tried it, (I got) 26 miles per gallon," he says. "By the end of the week, I was doing 29 and 30 (mpg)."
He's careful to avoid engaging the car's turbo-charger.
His best single day was 32 miles per gallon.
Olson got his inspiration from watching a Nascar race on television. Dale Earnhardt Jr. was leading near the end of the Michigan 400 when his team radioed to say he was about to run out of gas.
Earnhardt was instructed to conserve fuel by slowing down and it worked -- he won.
Olson's reaction to the victory was immediate.
"I said, 'Boy, this is interesting.'"
He's been hypermiling ever since.
Copter4 recently followed Olson on his way to work and found he is an easy target to spot while he's on C-470.
In Copter4's video, most of the other traffic passes him on the left while Olson travels the speed limit.
Teased in a camera interview by reporter Paul Day about "driving in the slow lane," Brian responded, "That's fine, I'm comfortable with that."
Olson calculates that hypermiling is saving him about 4.5 gallons per week, or a quarter of a tank of gas.
CBS4 learned about Brian Olson and his fuel saving efforts after Day posted a notice on cbs4enver.com asking hypermilers to email CBS4 about their experiences.
Hypermiling: Another Denverite's Story
Ed Cushing, Creative Services Director at CBS4, shared his recent hypermiling experience on a long road trip:
"For five years, my wife has been driving a '98 Toyota 4Runner with a V6. It's great for Colorado snow, but gas mileage isn't its strongest area of performance. In around-town driving, we get about 16 mpg. On road trips, we often see 19 or 20.
A couple of weeks ago we took a really long road trip through much of the southwest. Given the price of gas, we thought it would be a great time to experiment with hypermiling techniques. The 4Runner was loaded with camping gear, myself and my wife and our two kids. We even had more gear strapped to the roof (which doesn't help with weight or aerodynamics.) I did check tire pressures and increased them from 32 to 35. And with that, we set for our adventure with a fill up in Lakewood on the way up Interstate 70.
Really, our only strategies were to drive slower, accelerate slowly and try to anticipate slower traffic ahead of us to minimize any time spent idling in traffic at 0 mph. I didn't expect much on the first day since we were driving up mountains. When we could, we locked the cruise control in at 60 mph. We did run into some construction delays and inevitably spent some time sitting with an idling engine but when we got to Grand Junction, I was very happy to find that we had gotten 25.6 mpg on our first tank!
Slowing down clearly made a big difference.
We continued to our first stop in Moab. On our second leg of the trip, Moab to Las Vegas, we had a lot of ground to cover in one day and agreed it would be a good excuse to see how normal driving compared to our hypermiling experience.
I did try to accelerate slowly when entering the highway, but set the cruise at 75 or just above. Very little traffic to worry about in this area, but lots of elevation changes. The car was constantly downshifting to keep the higher speed and I was sure it would have a negative effect on fuel economy.
It did.
At our two gas stops we recorded mpg around 18 and one very bad 16. From Vegas to the Grand Canyon we did a combination of making time and saving gas. Keeping speeds to somewhere between 65 and 70 we were able to do about 20 mpg. But we got hard-core again from the Grand Canyon through Arizona and New Mexico, recording a trip high of 26.4 mpg. This was on a wonderfully flat leg of the trip with the cruise locked in at about 63 mph.
All in all, it was a great experience and we were shocked how much control we had over our fuel use.
Slowing down a little makes a big difference, at least in a big heavy vehicle like ours. My wife has continued to experiment with hypermiling techniques when driving in town and recorded 18.6 mpg on her last tank. That's noticeably better than the 16-ish she's always gotten."
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