Boomers on a Budget: Transportation

Get rid of excess vehicles. The obvious starting point. So, we have a For Sale sign on the little white truck. It's our least fuel efficient vehicle at about 20 mpg. For now, we're keeping the Mazda Tribute (Tom insists he gets high 20s) and the Toyota Prius (currently at 51.2 mpg). How far into retirement does a couple go before dropping to one car? We had the briefest of conversations about this; we both said, almost simultaneously, that our separate vacations make this impossible.

Reduce the commute. Well, Tom and I certainly accomplished that in 2008. My work for clients is primarily through telecommute. (I save on gasoline, dry cleaning, and lunches. The savings are appreciable.) If you are not ready for that drastic a change, working from home just one day a week will make a healthy dent in transportation costs. Pitch the idea to your boss by suggesting that everyone go on a 4-day week; the office will look very green in the annual report. If you are the boss, declare a trial period to test for changes in productivity, loyalty, and absenteeism.

Relax the commute. If there's no way reduce work days, try to flex the schedule. Gas mileage goes up after rush hour.

Carpool, etc. Texas is not known for its carpools. But here's a good etc.—a boomer woman colleague bought a scooter last year to travel between home and campus. She brags about her $4/month gasoline cost.

Eco-drive. Boost gas mileage with tips from Ford's eco-driving web page. The company's sponsored research demonstrates 15% and higher improvement in typical drivers' fuel efficiency. Conscious choices make 25% improvement likely. (Hypermiling fans claim much higher improvement of 50% but also invite charges of using unsafe and unlawful strategies, such as turning off the ignition when the car is in motion.)

My favorite eco-driving techniques. I cannot say what improvement these measures produce but I did notice higher mpg after I adopted them:

1. When I'm the only car on the city street, drop speed to 20 - 25 miles per hour.
2. When I'm the only car on the highway, drop speed to 50 - 55 miles per hour.
3. When I'm the only car on a hill, "coast" up the hill as I approach the crest. (This takes some practice and it's hard to give direction but the basic idea is to reduce the work of the engine in the last few seconds of the climb.)
   
4. When I'm the only car approaching a yellow or red light, take my foot off the accelerator and coast to the intersection.
5. When cars are behind me in the same situation, drop my speed to the lowest socially acceptable level. This means taking into account the possibility that someone behind me is armed and short-tempered.
6. Plan trips around the hours of my favorite radio shows to help me tolerate the slower pace of my travels. Yep, and also around the hours that I am least likely to have cars behind me.
   

© 2008 Mary Bold, PhD, CFLE. The content of this blog or related web sites created by Mary Bold (www.marybold.com, www.boldproductions.com, College Intern Blog) is not under any circumstances to be regarded as professional, legal, financial, or medical advice. Or education advice. Or marital advice. Or even a tip.

Personal Finance and Prius MPG

Prius miles per gallon. When you fill up your Prius (or anytime, really) you have opportunity to start anew in measuring your miles per gallon. Tom Bold does his own calculation and tells me that I'm not really getting 48 to 50 mpg—more like 44 or 45. I prefer the car's report, of course, and aim for that magical 50.

Blissful beginning. Anyway, in those first few miles of re-setting, you can report extremely high values. It's not unusual for a Prius owner to claim 80 mpg before sheepishly admitting that the figure was achieved on the drive home from the gas station. My own recent record (OK, today) is 61.7, and that's almost 100 miles into the drive.

Hypermiling, Ecodriving, and Nempimania: Real words with the meaning being to maximize gas mileage through driving technique. The last term (from Japanese for craze for fuel economy) takes maximizing to the level of obsession. On American streets we're pretty much protected from the extremes: do too much to protect your MPG and you'll find yourself honked at or, worse, rear-ended. So, aside from the occasional stubborn coasting to a stoplight that is clearly not going to turn green in the next 10 seconds, the smart hybrid owner aims for low-traffic times of day and, of course, chooses the least hilly route to anywhere.

Competitive urges: Hybrid drivers fall in love with bettering their gas mileage. If everyone drove a hybrid, traffic would slow in a new kind of competition. That competitive urge would still be mixed with ecological and personal finance concerns. But it would also be about capturing your latest MPG on your cell phone camera. YMMV.

On a personal note: I rarely make political jokes (classroom etiquette) but I do find humor in a tactic I used Monday night when driving across North Dallas. I was determined to protect that MPG, so I exited the President George Bush Turnpike and drove at a slower speed on a city boulevard. It took me about 20 hours to realize the irony. ~ Lida

© 2008 Mary Bold, PhD, CFLE. The content of this blog or related web sites created by Mary Bold is not under any circumstances to be regarded as professional, legal, financial, or medical advice. Or education advice. Or marital advice. Or even a tip.