Before you turn your car on...
1. Prepare yourself. Buckle your seat belt, adjust your mirrors, check your lipstick, set up your cell phone. Also, instead of turning on the motor and rolling down to the end of your driveway to see if it's safe to turn out, wait until you're sure that it is, and then start moving.
2. Choose your route. Driving the main interstates or arterials is not always the best way to get from point A to point B. There's often less traffic if you take a more direct route, even if the posted speed is slower. Besides, "speed is the enemy of fuel economy."
3. See how far you can roll. If you're on a slope, why do you need your engine? Put the car in neutral, take your foot off the brake, and coast until your first stop. Your top speed will probably be 5 to 10 mph.
4. Limit the amount of heat and air-conditioning you use. In an urban environment, air-condition can lower fuel economy by as much as 30 percent. If you can't get by without it, try turning it off temporarily at a stoplight or stop sign, so you don't further reduce your car's efficiency during acceleration.
5. Keep a constant load on your engine. Imagine a roller coaster: It goes down hills and up hills, but never stops completely. You can do the same thing in your car-using momentum you've already generated-but without sacrificing as much speed. So instead of setting the cruise control to 60 and having the engine work overtime to maintain that speed on an incline, lock your foot on the accelerator in a fixed position; you'll lose a little speed cresting the hill, but pick it right back up going down the other side. And your engine will never know the difference. Ditto the cars behind you.
6. Experiment with "pulse and glide," a technique whereby you accelerate to the speed limit and then coast in neutral until you lose too much speed. You would get phenomenal results by speeding up to 50 mph and slowing down to 5 mph (which is impractical basically everywhere), but you'll see satisfying results in almost any range in between.
Source: Good. is
