Optimize Short Trips

If your destination is close enough and you don't need cargo capacity, simply walk or ride your bicycle instead of driving there. This will provide you the added benefit of physical exercise while reducing your transportation costs at the same time.

If the distance is too great to walk or bike or if you need to be able to haul more than you could otherwise carry on your own, then try to accomplish as many short-trip objectives as possible in one outing. Your car's engine is more fuel-efficient when it is warm than when it is cool. Thus, once you've got the engine hot from one short trip, it's better to keep it in use for additional destinations than to park it and resume travel later once the engine has lost that heat.

In plotting your course to achieve your combined errands, plan your route so as to arrive at your farthest destination first to help ensure that your engine reaches its prime operating temperature as quickly as possible. Once warmed up, it will restart and function more efficiently for your remaining errands as you work your way back home or wherever you started from, saving gas in the process.

Bottom Line:

Save about $52.00 per year.*
(*Individual results will vary. Calculations based on saving $1 per week in fuel costs.)

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