New research finds that the secret to using less electricity is in your hands – or, more accurately, under your right foot. Driving faster burns more gas, which increases your gas mileage. What’s more, you don’t even save much time by getting from Point A to Point B, two researchers from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities have determined.
With gas prices once again hitting $4 a gallon across the country, it’s understandable that drivers are looking for smart hacks to avoid pain at the pump.
Most of the previous research on how much your travel speed affects laboratory tests or relies on extrapolation from a small amount of real-world data.
But this new paper, which was published in the magazine Communication Sustainabilitygoes a long way: Researchers analyzed a data set of more than 120 million trips taken by American drivers in 2021 and found that sticking to the speed limit would save $22 million in gas costs every day.
That’s a savings of 6.7 million gallons of gas, with the added benefit of reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 57,000 metric tons. Even going a little too fast can ruin your mileage, which costs you money in extra fuel costs.
While some cars get better mileage than others, a good rule of thumb is that the best driving speed for fuel economy is between 40 and 55 mph. At highway speeds, going even 10 mph over the speed limit can burn about 20% more gas.
And we’re sorry, EV drivers – you’re out of shape, either: Researchers found that speed burned through the car’s available battery power faster, which translates into more electricity consumption.
Speeders waste a lot of fuel
The researchers looked at three main speed metrics: How often drivers sped, how fast they were traveling and how much of a particular trip was spent speeding. On average, they found that drivers spend about 13% to 14% of trips driving 10 to 11 mph over the posted limit.
In two different speed conditions, the paper found that drivers who did not speed burned 2.4% and 3% less gas. For EVs, the difference was even more dramatic; drivers saw an average of 9% energy savings when slowing down.
The driving behavior that had the biggest impact was the spread of speed: In other words, drivers who usually treat their morning commute like a Formula 1 course can get a huge financial benefit by changing their behavior.
And if you think you need to speed up because you’re late, think again: Researchers found that speeding shaves just 54 seconds off the average commute time. As it turns out, speeding doesn’t save that much time, despite the idea.
Another study also found that defensive driving saves gas. A previous paper by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found that drivers who don’t speed — that is, don’t speed and avoid both rapid acceleration and hard braking — can shave 6% off their utility bills.
