CDeb Posted July 6, 2008 Author Share Posted July 6, 2008 And that is a bad thing how?Not bad, just amazing.I think the point of the chart was to show that people are still driving... like crazy...There are a ton of people that simply don't have a choice. Given that, and the fact that the number of drivers grows every year, it is quite amazing that total VMT has dropped as much as it has. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedScare Posted July 12, 2008 Share Posted July 12, 2008 Just an update to let you guys and gals know just how much of a dork I am...I've kept track of my fuel mileage and spending since April 30. I've compared the cost of each fill-up to how much it would have cost had I been getting my old gas mileage that I was regularly getting. Since April 30, total savings has been $82.31.I may have set a new standard in gas mileage geekiness. Not only have I managed to increase my mileage to 20.25 mpg, but by studying Yahoo maps I was able to determine that I-45 makes a pretty severe turn AWAY from my house AND AWAY from my work. By exiting the freeway at each curve, I can take a surface street straight to home and work. I have slashed 3.7 miles off my trip each way. Since I started this game, I have taken my gasoline usage from 5.03 gallons per round trip to 3.73 gallons per round trip. At today's rates of $3.90 per gallon, I'm saving $122 per month. My gas savings works out to 26% less gas usage per trip. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ricco67 Posted July 12, 2008 Share Posted July 12, 2008 I may have set a new standard in gas mileage geekiness. Not only have I managed to increase my mileage to 20.25 mpg, but by studying Yahoo maps I was able to determine that I-45 makes a pretty severe turn AWAY from my house AND AWAY from my work. By exiting the freeway at each curve, I can take a surface street straight to home and work. I have slashed 3.7 miles off my trip each way. Since I started this game, I have taken my gasoline usage from 5.03 gallons per round trip to 3.73 gallons per round trip. At today's rates of $3.90 per gallon, I'm saving $122 per month. My gas savings works out to 26% less gas usage per trip. Careful, Red. You might turn into a hypermiler. It already sounds like you're on the edge, pretty soon you'll add a real-time mileage indicator to your truck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
houstonmacbro Posted July 12, 2008 Share Posted July 12, 2008 Careful, Red. You might turn into a hypermiler.It already sounds like you're on the edge, pretty soon you'll add a real-time mileage indicator to your truck. In the Apple Application store I noticed they have a couple of mileage applications. I think they're free if you have an iPhone or iPod touch running 2.0. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CDeb Posted July 14, 2008 Author Share Posted July 14, 2008 I may have set a new standard in gas mileage geekiness. Not only have I managed to increase my mileage to 20.25 mpg, but by studying Yahoo maps I was able to determine that I-45 makes a pretty severe turn AWAY from my house AND AWAY from my work. By exiting the freeway at each curve, I can take a surface street straight to home and work. I have slashed 3.7 miles off my trip each way. Since I started this game, I have taken my gasoline usage from 5.03 gallons per round trip to 3.73 gallons per round trip. At today's rates of $3.90 per gallon, I'm saving $122 per month. My gas savings works out to 26% less gas usage per trip.I may have you beat on geekiness. I changed where I enter and park in our garage at the office to save a couple of drops of gas each day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
totheskies Posted July 16, 2008 Share Posted July 16, 2008 I'm the ultimate "hypermiler"... gas mileage to work? 0. Gas from work? 0 BIKE!!!!!!!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sevfiv Posted July 23, 2008 Share Posted July 23, 2008 No crises here:ConocoPhillips kicked off second-quarter earnings announcements of the world's largest oil majors today with results that surpassed Wall Street expectations amid record-high oil prices and strong natural gas prices that offset lower refining profits.The Houston-based company earned $5.4 billion, or $3.50 per share, up from $4.8 billion, or $2.90 per share in the second quarter of 2007. Last year's figures were adjusted to account for the company's $4.5 billion writeoff of Venezuela assets when ConocoPhillips decided to walk away rather than turn over majority control to that nation's state-controlled oil company. Without that adjustment, the company earned $310 million, or 18 cents a share, in the April-June period of 2007.http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5902963.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SecondTour Posted July 26, 2008 Share Posted July 26, 2008 I like having an excuse to slow down. I was chilling out on Sunday afternoon, driving home from IAH at about 65. Not in a hurry, trying to economize on fuel a little. Everyone was shooting past me. It's kind of zen-like, albeit in a somewhat life-threatening way, to drive a little slower on the freeway.That's exactly how it's been for me. I started keeping it at 60ish a couple of months ago. I did it for the increased MPG, which was significant. However, the unexpected stress relief has been much more beneficial. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeR Posted August 25, 2008 Share Posted August 25, 2008 I probably will continue to drive at the speed I'm most comfortable with. That's usually at very near the 85th percentile speed which is also the speed that traffic engineers have determined to be the most safe. Speed limits, on the other hand, are simply cash cows. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subdude Posted November 1, 2008 Share Posted November 1, 2008 And as sure as night follows day, trucks and SUVs are getting a bigger share of the (shrinking) market.How quickly we forget: Cheaper gas = higher pickup and SUV salesPickup and SUV sales plummeted when gas hit $4 per gallon, and many thought these gas-guzzling segments would never fully recover. That may be true, but for now Americans are once again getting more comfortable with trucks and SUVs. Truck sales fell below 10% of overall vehicle sales back in May and June, but the price of gas falling from an average of $4.11 per gallon to $2.78 has helped the share of trucks rise to 14.1% of the overall market for September. Depending on how buyers react to the financial crisis, October could be even better as gas prices have continued to go down. SUVs have seen a smaller but still significant jump in overall share, going from 1.9% in May to 2.5% in September Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedScare Posted November 1, 2008 Share Posted November 1, 2008 That may not be as bad as it looks. There were piles of discounts given away to move those trucks and SUVs. And, if one looks at the numbers, they are a bit skewed. For instance, GM is building 468,000 trucks in the 4th quarter of 2008, down 31% from the 684,000 they built in 2007. At the same time, they are building approxiamtely 14% more cars than in 2007 (up to 407,000 from 358,000). As recently as 2007, GM built twice as many trucks and SUVs as cars. Now, that ration is close to 50-50. The numbers you see in that blog represent the fact that some people see the discounts as reaching a level that offsets the gas costs. As GM and Ford get their manufacturing numbers more in line with sales, the discounts will diminish and the sales flatten out. At least, I believe it will. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbigtex56 Posted November 3, 2008 Share Posted November 3, 2008 I probably will continue to drive at the speed I'm most comfortable with. That's usually at very near the 85th percentile speed which is also the speed that traffic engineers have determined to be the most safe. Speed limits, on the other hand, are simply cash cows.Source? Seems to me that the 50th percentile would be the ideal. Those who drive significantly faster or slower than surrounding traffic pose the greatest hazards. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheNiche Posted November 3, 2008 Share Posted November 3, 2008 Source? Seems to me that the 50th percentile would be the ideal. Those who drive significantly faster or slower than surrounding traffic pose the greatest hazards. Just Google for: "Speed Limit" "85th Percentile" You'll get tons of hits from sources all over the country and also from the UK, including a two-page 34.2MB PDF document from TxDOT that discusses how they try to set speed limits according to the 85th percentile of the speeds that drivers travel. I would repost content, but this massive document is not very functional. So if JoeR is traveling at the 85th percentile of speed, that means that he typically drives the speed limit. At least--that is what TxDOT wants us to think... Personally, I don't buy their explanation of methodology. Not for a second. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedScare Posted November 3, 2008 Share Posted November 3, 2008 New sales numbers for October 2008...http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27516318/Detroit-based General Motors Corp. said its light trucks sales tumbled 51 percent compared with the same month last year, while demand for passenger cars fell 34 percent.The results were less severe at Ford Motor Co., which said its Ford, Lincoln and Mercury car sales were off 27 percent, while light truck sales for the three brands were down more than 30 percent.Perhaps US memories are not as short as first thought. Obviously, everything sucked in this economy, but truck (and SUV) sales were down 51% from 2007. That's with gas prices plummetting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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