Selling Real Estate in the Slow Lane
May 31st, 2008 categories: Real Estate Industry
I drive for a living. In a typical week, I drive about 500 miles mostly for business and with gasoline notching up and up, my once weekly fill up of $30.00 is fast approaching $50.00.
I can’t drive less. I can’t take public transportation. I already drive a reasonable car that gets about 25 MPG on average and can’t turn it back in until February.
So, I thought I would try to reduce the amount of gas I need to buy by changing my driving habits: driving the speed limit, accelerating slowly and laying off the brakes.
For two weeks, I’ve been that annoying car who is slow to speed up to get through a changing light, that idiot going 65 MPH in a 65 MPH zone and that twit taking a corner slowly. You’ve probably seen me and maybe even flipped me the bird.
In two weeks, I’ve managed to get about a total of 80 more miles out of filling up my tank than driving the way most everyone else does. That’s about two gallons and $8.00 or so in two weeks. At $4.00/week, I’ll save a little more than $200 in a year. Nothing earth shattering but $200 is still $200.
It would bother me normally to be the slow driver but I look at it this way - all you drivers stuck behind me aren’t paying my bills. When you do, then you get a vote.
A few other things I’ve learned in my two-week experiment:
I have to plan ahead to make sure I get to my appointments on time. No longer can I “catch up” on the highway.
Everyone drives like maniacs - just to get someplace 1 minute before me.
Not only will I save on gas but I will be less likely to have to pay any whopping speeding tickets. One more and I will have to go to driving school - echh!!
Other drivers expect you to speed up really quickly after a stop and brake really quickly for a stop so actually obeying the laws means you have to really watch the drivers behind you.
See you in the slow lane…
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Jessica -
Great new merger of blog interests.
Great piece of advice. It never ceases to amaze how stupid it is to speed. Basic arithmetic says that for the most part the time savings are 1-2 minutes–frequently less. The crazy speeding on local surface roads is what bothers me the most. But I am one of those crazy hyper-miling Prius drivers getting over 58 mpg in the summer, part due to the vehicle, part due to better habits. No need for the Prius to do way better on mileage no matter what you drive.
I agree with you about speeding on local roads. I never realized it until I moved to busy road where the speed limit is 25 but people routinely go 50. It literally keeps me up at night, thinking about what if my dogs get loose or my daughter somehow wanders off. I know people just aren’t paying attention and won’t have time to brake going 50.
The MythBusters tv show just aired an episode where they tested the gas usage of calm drivers (”driving in the slow lane”) vs aggressive/stressed drivers — calm driving indeed noticeably saves gas.