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Driving Economically.
Notmyrealname
Posts: 4,003 Forumite
Seeing as I'm getting slated for being able to drive economically and the clever barstewards suggested I should tell people how to drive if I know so much, I though I'd post a few things I remember from the course I did several years ago. They are in no particular order. I'm not going to cover the tyre pressure/luggage/roof rack etc as they've all been done to death. Also importantly when doing this, you don't crawl around like a granny either. I drive at the speed limit or as near as is safe to.
Golden Rule number 1:
EVERY TIME YOU USE THE BRAKES YOU'RE BURNING POUND NOTES.
...because it means you've driven a distance using fuel that you could have done slowing down using engine braking for free.
The first few points you need to do is to learn about your vehicle.
First of all, pretty much all vehicles cut off fuel to the engine under engine braking. So when you're rolling in gear with your foot off the accelerator, the distance is costing you nothing. If you do the same in neutral it uses fuel to keep the engine idling.
Secondly, learn where the power band of your car is. Outside of that, all you're doing is turning fuel into smoke. For example if on a petrol car the maximum power is 4500 RPM, you're wasting fuel going above that. On a diesel car if max torque is at 1700RPM and max power is at 4000RPM, driving below 1700RPM or above 4000RPM is just turning diesel into smoke. Yes it'll trundle along or accelerate below/above those figures but you'll use more fuel per mile than being within them
Finally before we move on to the techniques, learn how your vehicle slows down under engine braking in the various gears (in gear, foot off throttle) and see what distance it takes to slow from say 60MPH to 30MPH in 4th gear and 30MPH to virtual stop in 3rd/2nd gear - the importance of this you'll see later.
So on to the driving. Some will be obvious, some less so but most people don't do any of them.
1) Leave a gap. Smooth driving uses less fuel than constant accelerating and decelerating. When you see brake lights coming on, using engine braking a little when vehicles slow in front of you means free mileage. I have found many times leaving just the 2 second distance that I've been able to slow enough on engine braking and not needed to use the footbrake at all unless there's been a quite noticeable change in speed - usually over 10MPH. If you need to overtake, do it as quickly as possible, using engine braking to get back down to your cruising speed once you've passed.
2) Traffic lights:
If you can see a traffic light is on red, let off the throttle early and slow down under engine braking. The idea is that you arrive at the lights as they're changing. If there's a queue of cars at a red light, back off earlier with the idea of reaching the back of the queue as they're already moving off. All the distance you've done with the foot off the throttle is free mileage and you'll use far less than driving up to the light/back of the queue and stopping until you can move off.
3) Roundabouts/junctions.
The aim of the game is to approach them so you don't need to stop. The idea is that you arrive at the roundabout/junction timing it so you can enter the roundabout/road without needing to stop. Again, let off the throttle early instead of driving up to the stop line, stopping and then setting off. If there's a queue of cars waiting to get on to the roundabout/turn into the road, back off earlier with the idea of reaching the back of the queue as they're already moving off. All the distance you've done with the foot off the throttle is free mileage and you'll use far less than driving up to the light/back of the queue and stopping until you can move off.
Neither of the above will add any time to your journey even though you're slowing down earlier. You will also use less fuel as you're not having to set off from a standstill.
4) Descending hills. Unless the gradient is so shallow you cannot maintain speed, always do it in gear with the foot off the throttle and never in neutral. Apart from the fact that being in neutral is technically not in full control of the vehicle, the engine uses fuel to keep it idling.
5) Climbing hills. Don't accelerate up a hill. The aim of the game is to maintain your speed and then do the accelerating up to speed on the flat or downhill.
6) Driving around town. Now this sounds completely counter-intuitive but isn't. In most cars, driving in 4th gear at 30MPH is too high a gear. In a 30 limit unless you're driving down long roads with no traffic on drive around in 3rd gear. Whilst the engine is running faster than fourth the engine load is far lower, especially when increasing speed, so uses less fuel. You will also find you need to change gear far far less as you can accelerate from 2nd gear speeds in third gear in most cars and need to use the brakes less than you do in 4th as you can use engine braking which is again, free mileage when you do. You may find it far more relaxing than driving around in 4th as third gear gives you more flexibility.
7) Accelerating when a change in speed limit. Assuming you can, foot down wide open throttle is the best way, going a couple of MPH over the limit then lifting off and dropping down to the limit and maintaining it. Same when overtaking.
8) Approaching bends where you need to slow down. I see all the time peoples brake lights coming on. That means they've driven up to the corner then braked down to the speed they want to do it. Up to the point they've hit the brakes they've been using fuel. Instead of doing this, lift off the throttle and brake under engine braking. That distance up to the corner has been completely free.
9) Approaching lower speed limits. As you will know how far your car takes to slow from say 60MPH to 30MPH, you can lift off the throttle early and use engine braking to slow down. All of that distance is completely free. Most people will continue to drive at 60MPH to the point where they need to apply the brakes to slow to 30 and that uses more fuel than backing off the throttle and using engine braking. It'll add a few seconds to your journey time but not that you'll notice.
10) Exiting motorways. When you get to the 300 meter marker for the exit, back off the throttle and use engine braking to the end of the sliproad. Now I am aware that this is not possible on all sliproads as some are uphill but as you'll have already tested the engine braking on your car so you know the distance it takes to slow down under engine braking, you can adjust accordingly, i.e back off earlier if its a fairly steep downhill sliproad or later if its an uphill one. The idea is to do the length of the sliproad on engine braking arriving at the roundabout/lights/junction at the end exactly the same as we've described in the points above. Most people drive the length of the sliproad, braking when they need to to stop. They've done at least 300 meters more than you using fuel.
11) Cars with 6 speed boxes. You would think that once you're on the motorway, being in 6th gear is the most economical. This is not always the case. It is only the most economical if there's not hills. For my car, driving down the M1 from Leeds to Leicester, I use less fuel in 5th gear than I do doing the whole journey in 6th. Why? Because there are a lot of hills and 6th gear will use more fuel going up the hills than the higher engine speed 5th gear uses over the whole journey. I use even less fuel if I use 5th for most of the time and 6th for going down the long downhills and flat sections.
So how do we test this is working?
Before you start practicing the above, set out a test route of about 30 miles which you will drive outside of peak hours so say 10am-2pm or so or after teatime or on a weekend. On the test route have a bit of rural A or B road driving, some motorway or dual carriageway if you have some nearby, a bit of urban driving with some roundabouts, traffic lights and a bit of town driving. You will need to take someone with you for these tests with some paper, a pen and a stopwatch.
Firstly, if you've a trip computer, reset the average MPG. Drive the route. Get the person who is with you to count the number of gear changes you do and also record the time it takes to do the route.
Practice the economical driving as above for a week or two.
Drive the test route again at the same time of day. Again, reset the average MPG, get someone to time it and note down the number of gearchanges.
If you're doing it right, you should get higher MPG, do fewer gear changes and also do the course quicker as well. Apparently most people will see a 10% improvement. Some won't because they already drive like that, some will see more.
Does it work? Hell yes. For example in my own car, I get usually 10MPG/20% more than the wife does. I can always tell from the trip computer when she's driven it.
On one job, I used to do a night trunk from Hull to London which was a 410 mile round trip. Two of us did it taking the same route, the same load in the same wagons setting off at the same time. We didn't have our own wagons so you'd get what was on offer so the difference in the vehicles was taken out of the equation. The other driver used to tear !!!! about, revving up to the limiter, driving up to traffic lights and braking when he needed to to stop, accelerating up the hills in a low gear revving the nuts off the engine.
He took about 2-3 minutes less to get to London over 205 miles. He'd just be driving through the gate at security as I rolled up to it. In a car the difference would be far less.
Over the days run when we refuelled back at the yard, I'd have used 200 litres, he used 240 litres - 20% more. OK, a wagon uses a lot more than a car but over a week he used 200 litres more fuel and over a year a whopping 9600 litres more. At todays rate that would be £14,000 more in fuel he'd use than me.
The company I was running for used to publish the fuel economy of each driver on a weekly basis. I was always in the top 2-3 out of 20 drivers. As far as I know, I was the only driver who had done an economical and defensive driving course.
Golden Rule number 1:
EVERY TIME YOU USE THE BRAKES YOU'RE BURNING POUND NOTES.
...because it means you've driven a distance using fuel that you could have done slowing down using engine braking for free.
The first few points you need to do is to learn about your vehicle.
First of all, pretty much all vehicles cut off fuel to the engine under engine braking. So when you're rolling in gear with your foot off the accelerator, the distance is costing you nothing. If you do the same in neutral it uses fuel to keep the engine idling.
Secondly, learn where the power band of your car is. Outside of that, all you're doing is turning fuel into smoke. For example if on a petrol car the maximum power is 4500 RPM, you're wasting fuel going above that. On a diesel car if max torque is at 1700RPM and max power is at 4000RPM, driving below 1700RPM or above 4000RPM is just turning diesel into smoke. Yes it'll trundle along or accelerate below/above those figures but you'll use more fuel per mile than being within them
Finally before we move on to the techniques, learn how your vehicle slows down under engine braking in the various gears (in gear, foot off throttle) and see what distance it takes to slow from say 60MPH to 30MPH in 4th gear and 30MPH to virtual stop in 3rd/2nd gear - the importance of this you'll see later.
So on to the driving. Some will be obvious, some less so but most people don't do any of them.
1) Leave a gap. Smooth driving uses less fuel than constant accelerating and decelerating. When you see brake lights coming on, using engine braking a little when vehicles slow in front of you means free mileage. I have found many times leaving just the 2 second distance that I've been able to slow enough on engine braking and not needed to use the footbrake at all unless there's been a quite noticeable change in speed - usually over 10MPH. If you need to overtake, do it as quickly as possible, using engine braking to get back down to your cruising speed once you've passed.
2) Traffic lights:
If you can see a traffic light is on red, let off the throttle early and slow down under engine braking. The idea is that you arrive at the lights as they're changing. If there's a queue of cars at a red light, back off earlier with the idea of reaching the back of the queue as they're already moving off. All the distance you've done with the foot off the throttle is free mileage and you'll use far less than driving up to the light/back of the queue and stopping until you can move off.
3) Roundabouts/junctions.
The aim of the game is to approach them so you don't need to stop. The idea is that you arrive at the roundabout/junction timing it so you can enter the roundabout/road without needing to stop. Again, let off the throttle early instead of driving up to the stop line, stopping and then setting off. If there's a queue of cars waiting to get on to the roundabout/turn into the road, back off earlier with the idea of reaching the back of the queue as they're already moving off. All the distance you've done with the foot off the throttle is free mileage and you'll use far less than driving up to the light/back of the queue and stopping until you can move off.
Neither of the above will add any time to your journey even though you're slowing down earlier. You will also use less fuel as you're not having to set off from a standstill.
4) Descending hills. Unless the gradient is so shallow you cannot maintain speed, always do it in gear with the foot off the throttle and never in neutral. Apart from the fact that being in neutral is technically not in full control of the vehicle, the engine uses fuel to keep it idling.
5) Climbing hills. Don't accelerate up a hill. The aim of the game is to maintain your speed and then do the accelerating up to speed on the flat or downhill.
6) Driving around town. Now this sounds completely counter-intuitive but isn't. In most cars, driving in 4th gear at 30MPH is too high a gear. In a 30 limit unless you're driving down long roads with no traffic on drive around in 3rd gear. Whilst the engine is running faster than fourth the engine load is far lower, especially when increasing speed, so uses less fuel. You will also find you need to change gear far far less as you can accelerate from 2nd gear speeds in third gear in most cars and need to use the brakes less than you do in 4th as you can use engine braking which is again, free mileage when you do. You may find it far more relaxing than driving around in 4th as third gear gives you more flexibility.
7) Accelerating when a change in speed limit. Assuming you can, foot down wide open throttle is the best way, going a couple of MPH over the limit then lifting off and dropping down to the limit and maintaining it. Same when overtaking.
8) Approaching bends where you need to slow down. I see all the time peoples brake lights coming on. That means they've driven up to the corner then braked down to the speed they want to do it. Up to the point they've hit the brakes they've been using fuel. Instead of doing this, lift off the throttle and brake under engine braking. That distance up to the corner has been completely free.
9) Approaching lower speed limits. As you will know how far your car takes to slow from say 60MPH to 30MPH, you can lift off the throttle early and use engine braking to slow down. All of that distance is completely free. Most people will continue to drive at 60MPH to the point where they need to apply the brakes to slow to 30 and that uses more fuel than backing off the throttle and using engine braking. It'll add a few seconds to your journey time but not that you'll notice.
10) Exiting motorways. When you get to the 300 meter marker for the exit, back off the throttle and use engine braking to the end of the sliproad. Now I am aware that this is not possible on all sliproads as some are uphill but as you'll have already tested the engine braking on your car so you know the distance it takes to slow down under engine braking, you can adjust accordingly, i.e back off earlier if its a fairly steep downhill sliproad or later if its an uphill one. The idea is to do the length of the sliproad on engine braking arriving at the roundabout/lights/junction at the end exactly the same as we've described in the points above. Most people drive the length of the sliproad, braking when they need to to stop. They've done at least 300 meters more than you using fuel.
11) Cars with 6 speed boxes. You would think that once you're on the motorway, being in 6th gear is the most economical. This is not always the case. It is only the most economical if there's not hills. For my car, driving down the M1 from Leeds to Leicester, I use less fuel in 5th gear than I do doing the whole journey in 6th. Why? Because there are a lot of hills and 6th gear will use more fuel going up the hills than the higher engine speed 5th gear uses over the whole journey. I use even less fuel if I use 5th for most of the time and 6th for going down the long downhills and flat sections.
So how do we test this is working?
Before you start practicing the above, set out a test route of about 30 miles which you will drive outside of peak hours so say 10am-2pm or so or after teatime or on a weekend. On the test route have a bit of rural A or B road driving, some motorway or dual carriageway if you have some nearby, a bit of urban driving with some roundabouts, traffic lights and a bit of town driving. You will need to take someone with you for these tests with some paper, a pen and a stopwatch.
Firstly, if you've a trip computer, reset the average MPG. Drive the route. Get the person who is with you to count the number of gear changes you do and also record the time it takes to do the route.
Practice the economical driving as above for a week or two.
Drive the test route again at the same time of day. Again, reset the average MPG, get someone to time it and note down the number of gearchanges.
If you're doing it right, you should get higher MPG, do fewer gear changes and also do the course quicker as well. Apparently most people will see a 10% improvement. Some won't because they already drive like that, some will see more.
Does it work? Hell yes. For example in my own car, I get usually 10MPG/20% more than the wife does. I can always tell from the trip computer when she's driven it.
On one job, I used to do a night trunk from Hull to London which was a 410 mile round trip. Two of us did it taking the same route, the same load in the same wagons setting off at the same time. We didn't have our own wagons so you'd get what was on offer so the difference in the vehicles was taken out of the equation. The other driver used to tear !!!! about, revving up to the limiter, driving up to traffic lights and braking when he needed to to stop, accelerating up the hills in a low gear revving the nuts off the engine.
He took about 2-3 minutes less to get to London over 205 miles. He'd just be driving through the gate at security as I rolled up to it. In a car the difference would be far less.
Over the days run when we refuelled back at the yard, I'd have used 200 litres, he used 240 litres - 20% more. OK, a wagon uses a lot more than a car but over a week he used 200 litres more fuel and over a year a whopping 9600 litres more. At todays rate that would be £14,000 more in fuel he'd use than me.
The company I was running for used to publish the fuel economy of each driver on a weekly basis. I was always in the top 2-3 out of 20 drivers. As far as I know, I was the only driver who had done an economical and defensive driving course.
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Comments
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I do a lot of what you suggest, but there is still a lot I don't do and will now try.
OH gets lower MPG than I do driving the same car as he speeds up and brakes at the last minute.0 -
Good post, but you missed one of the other advantages - driving like that also increases safety. You get in the habit of looking and thinking ahead which means you're far less likely to be taken by surprise when someone else does something stupid
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Joe_Horner wrote: »Good post, but you missed one of the other advantages - driving like that also increases safety. You get in the habit of looking and thinking ahead which means you're far less likely to be taken by surprise when someone else does something stupid
The title of the course was actually "Economical and defensive driving" but when you mention the "defensive" bit, people turn round and say they've never had an accident so don't need to do it and ignore it all, thus not taking on board the economical bit.
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I do most of these things and would consider myself to be a 'defensive' driver. It never ceases to amaze me the people that accelerate up to a red light or queue of cars, only to have to then brake and stop!0
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To be honest, if you're already using these techniques it doesn't help you much to see it being reposted because there is nothing else you can cut down on.
These tips are for those who usually have so much surplus cash that they don't know what to do with it so seeing tips like this gives them a mild challenge to satisfy themselves.
For those of us who are skint and driving like this already and have been for years it doesn't help.
I also disagree with #7 - foot down to accelerate. This means the engine will rev faster in a lower gear for longer burning more fuel when you can rev normally and change up earlier to burn less fuel.
I used to drive 18 miles to work and 18 miles home each day and in a 2L+ engined car you learn quickly how to cut down on the fuel to maximise it. The only other thing you can do is cut down on the engine size of your car. Again though if you're driving a 1L Nissan Micra, following all the above and still struggling to stay on the road you're not going to find much else to scrimp on.0 -
Notmyrealname wrote: »The title of the course was actually "Economical and defensive driving" but when you mention the "defensive" bit, people turn round and say they've never had an accident so don't need to do it and ignore it all, thus not taking on board the economical bit.
Never quite understood why people equate "defensive" driving with crawling round everywhere at half the limit. It's always seemed pretty clear to me that the faster you want to move the more relevant defensive techniques become
Getting better fuel consumption, a safer (and often quicker) trip, and certainly arriving more relaxed seems like win-win-win to me!0 -
Hypothetical situation here. You're in a really long queue at a red light. There is absolutely no way you will be getting through on the next cycle.
Is it best to
a) Put the car in first (or D) and take your feet off all pedals, just using the car's natural creep and leave it like that until it's time to stop again
b) Accelerate, but not as much as the car in front, creep in 2nd gear
c) Accelerate to the same speed as the car in front, then lift off, the gap will gradually increase as you coast in gear then close up again when the car in front brakes.
Obviously A and B only really apply to diesels and automatics. I've experimented with all three but haven't been able to come to a conclusion.0 -
Hypothetical situation here. You're in a really long queue at a red light. There is absolutely no way you will be getting through on the next cycle.
Is it best to
a) Put the car in first (or D) and take your feet off all pedals, just using the car's natural creep and leave it like that until it's time to stop again
b) Accelerate, but not as much as the car in front, creep in 2nd gear
c) Accelerate to the same speed as the car in front, then lift off, the gap will gradually increase as you coast in gear then close up again when the car in front brakes.
Obviously A and B only really apply to diesels and automatics. I've experimented with all three but haven't been able to come to a conclusion.
d) Don't feel the need to move forward every time the cars ahead do. Wait for the gap to open enough to make moving worthwhile - as long as you reach the lights by the time you can go through you haven't wasted any time.
Just watch out for impatient prats behind you who don't understand that basic fact trying to get past into the gap you're leaving
eta: on a similar note, when you're in a "stop / start" queue try to leave enough gap that you can back off the throttle as the car ahead slows and still be rolling when he moves again. Then keep your speed low as he pulls away again ready to rinse and repeat. You'll find that 4 or 5 cars behind you will also be able to keep moving that way before the "follow too close" brigade reduce it to stop-start again!0 -
Joe_Horner wrote: »d) Don't feel the need to move forward every time the cars ahead do. Wait for the gap to open enough to make moving worthwhile - as long as you reach the lights by the time you can go through you haven't wasted any time.
Well yes, I was referring to the next green cycle. At the set of lights I have in mind this is about 15-20 cars. Enough to wind people up or get yourself overtaken if you don't move at all.0 -
In that case, try to judge your move so that you just catch the car ahead as they pass the lights - you're closing on the car ahead which will discourage (most of) the idiots from trying to pass. The ones who still try to pass will be driving like a !!!!! anyway and better to have them ahead than behind!0
This discussion has been closed.
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