I drive from Glen Burnie, MD to College Park, MD everyday in the morning coming from the gym. That’s 6 miles on 695 and 22 miles on 95 going south. I have flown down that route before at 70 to 75 mph and have burned a quarter tank of gas in one round trip doing so. Definitely not good. Now that I have a sixty-mile commute (both ways) every day, how I use my gas has become a bigger concern than what it used to be. After reading about Wayne Gerdes in a magazine and a few other sources, I decided to give it a go.

There is an art to hypermiling, as stated in the second article I linked to. Unlike Gerdes, whose techniques can be a little extreme, I am of the mind that gas economy is not the be-all and end-all of being mindful of fuel economy. That said, I have put together some of my own methods in the effort to save gas.

First and foremost: safety first. Impeding the flow of traffic is a violation in many places, and the last thing I want to do is to be pulled over for that. Driving at fuel-efficient speeds on anything other than the right lane is courting a moving violation, or even worse, an accident. It’s rush hour out there, and there are plenty of people who are, for any reason, in a hurry. The last thing I want to be is the guy who drives 55 on the Interstate. I usually maintain a speed of 60, but that is not an absolute rule. If it is unsafe for me to be that slow on the rightmost lane—most likely because someone is bearing down on me hard and can’t pass to the left—I will speed up.

The slower speeds with which I drive my car actually allow me to be more mindful of everything that goes on in the highway. I am able not only to plan ahead for myself, but even for the people who might be entering the highway right behind me. Despite the slow, I try to be considerate. One thing I have noticed, though, is that I am not alone in the right lane going slower than the rest of the world, and it’s not just the trucks that are doing it, either.

Know the route by heart. It’s the same route I take everyday, and while traffic patterns change constantly, other things remain the same no matter what. Along 95 there are three major bottlenecks in the north half: Route 100, Route 175, and Route 32. These three have double exit lanes, and 175 has a stoplight right after the ramp that causes many unceremonious stops. You can imagine how the traffic almost automatically slows down and backs up on the two right lanes that feed these exits.

Since braking is the big enemy of saving gas, I treat these three choke points a few different ways. If the traffic is stop and go, I will go on the second lane from the left and accelerate gradually to cruising speed and just go past the backed-up traffic. Then I gently swing back to the right lane, slow down, and get back to fuel-saving mode. If the traffic is slow, but moving, I will go with the flow of that traffic but allow for enough space ahead of me to coast without having to hit my brakes should someone slow down. I have done this plenty of times not just on the way to work but especially on the way home. So many cars are in the left lane speeding up and slamming on their brakes thirty seconds later while I plod steadily along in dense traffic at a comfortable 45mph. In fourth gear, my tachometer doesn’t go past 1500rpm. I’m barely using any gas.

Enjoy the ride. Why the hell not be entertained? At the slower speeds I’m going, I can take a moment here and there to take in a few breathtaking views along the way. I can enjoy the music I listen to instead of just using it to drown out the road noise.

These are just a few things I have learned over the past few weeks by taking it easy on the road. The fact that it’s easy on my wallet is just one benefit. What I find more important is that it’s made the commute to and from work less stressful and, most of the time, enjoyable.