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I'm kind of new to this. I drive 8 miles to work in mostly city driving. My car is a 2003 Chevrolet Malibu with a 3.1 V6 with 60,000 miles. Originally I was averaging a hair over 20mpg daily driving. I'm now up to 23. I could get more but there are some things I can't do. Because of my wife's back condition I can't max inflate my tires. Louisiana was voted to have the worst roads in the country and max inflating the tires would make every bump in the road travel up my wife's spine and she's in enough pain already. Every week I check my tire pressures to maintain the recommended PSI using a pocket tire gauge and an air compressor that plugs into the car's electrical outlet. This thing came in handy when I had a blowout and discovered my spare was flat. Good, cheap, and light weight item to keep in the trunk. I change my oil every 3 months (never reach 3,000 miles within 3 months) with synthetic oil. I change my air filter at least once a year (live on a gravel road). Until we make repairs to my wife's car we travel together when going around town. Her's is a 1996 Mazda Protege with over 160,000 miles. We'll be changing her front struts and engine motor mount next week with the economic stimulus check. Front driver's side strut is totally blown as well as one of her motor mounts. Once it's back to having a smooth ride we'll take her car around town together instead of my car. I will get better mpg when I find a better place to park for work. I work at a hospital and employees are required to park in the parking tower. The lowest levels are given over to hospital company vehicles, doctors, and the elderly ladies that volunteer at the information desk and gift shop. I can probably part down the road but I have to wait for my custom orthotics to come in for my foot and ankle pain before doing so. Town recently installed red light cameras that also catch speeders. I enjoyed watching the flash of the camera catching a speeder who flew past me. Only down side to my route to work (besides the red lights) is an underpass which goes under the traintracks. It's not as steep as an overpass though so it's not that bad plus coming out of it leads to a 5mph drop in posted speed limit so I'm coasting in and out of it. Am trying to convince my dad to drop some weight with his van. He keeps it to haul wood for his wood working shop but he keeps the back seats in when not hauling plywood. Trying to get him to remove all those seats and store them in his wood shop which is a clean dry enviroment. I know my 3 or 4 mpg increase isn't much compared to what most of you have done but in my view, every little bit adds up and I've only just begun. Only good thing about my wife's back problem is it's caused her to slow down and coast to a stop more often. Doing so is easier on her back than her previous style of driving which included spinning her tires and screeching to a stop. With all her medical bills there's no way we can get another car for at least another year from now. Then my child support will be over and my car will be paid for then we can get her another vehicle.

If you really think about it, 8 miles is not a bad distance. If you want to save some $$, I would suggest buying a bicycle to commute to work. At a 8mph average (a tad faster than walking) you'd be there in a hour. I'd save you gas, and you'd be picking up a great hobby!! Excercise FTW :D

Welcome!

Hmm don't know what to really recommend for your drive to work other than turning off the car at stop lights, and just anticipating red lights. Just try to drive without using the brakes would be the main thing.

Eventually you would work your way up to pulse and glide where you drive up to a speed, such as 45, then put the car in neutral and coast down to 40 or 35, then go back in drive and speed up to 45 and repeat the process. However this wont work really good until you can get you tires inflated up to their sidewall maximum pressure, so I'd probably stay away from it for now.

bicycle isn't a good idea for me. The first two miles to work are on a very narrow road whose sides are literally falling into the ditch. I work rotating shifts at the hospital so 14 days a month would be spent bicycling in the dark on this road. The speed limit is 45 so some idiots usually do about 55 or more. This road ends at a stop light. I turn right and for one mile it's 55mph, another mile at 45 mph (depending on traffic I usually try to stick with 45 the whole way). After that it turns to 40mph for about a mile and a half then it drops to 35mph. It passes through a school zone which is 25mph. About 3/10 of a mile from work the speed is 30mph. Total is 8 stop lights and one stop sign. All 7 of the 8 stoplights are in the last 4 miles of the trip.

Hey, Layfayette is very hot,and very humid 7-8 months a year.In River Ridge-3 miles W of NOLA-we have hit 88 degrees and it was 85 just a few days ago.

Sailor Dave would arrive sweaty and reaking of "funk".He would need another set of clothes,and a shower to bike to work. Besides, our drivers here are very aggressive,and downright antibike.You frequently get cat calls of "get on the sidewalk, it is against the law to ride on the street at night",and these are the polite ones.

Biking is fun,and great exercise, but biking to work in Louisiana has some problems.

Sailor Dave-welcome,
Charlie

To make matters worse I work in a hospital boiler room. I could take the heat and humidity to get to work but I'd probably die doing the work afterwards.

I live in Lafayette and concur with biking being a BAD IDEA for multiple reasons, unless it is no more than a few blocks.

Even driving efficiently here is very difficult. We have extremely aggressive drivers and if you drive the limit (or, God help you, less than), you will be tailgated. The traffic engineering dept is worse than incompetent. You will have to stop at EVERY light unless you speed. I'm not kidding. On top of that, the city has been fighting a law suit for ten years (and finally lost their last appeal) that they owe police officers for illegally withholding millions of dollars of their pay. Some estimates are that the city is short 150 officers. Drunk driving, speeding, racing, and other reckless behaviors are simply not enforced.

Even when fatal accidents happens, the drivers usually get a very light sentence. About 2 years ago, a guy was drunk and was speeding and weaving around in traffic, playing with his buddy and hit three oncoming cars. He killed two people, permanently disabled his 17-year-old girlfriend, and ran from the scene. He was captured in the woods hours later and tested under the legal limit. He was convicted of negligent injuring or something and will have served about 5 months when he gets out this month. Another guy killed four people and even got about 4 tickets afterwards while out on bail, and he will serve about 5 years I think.

Instead of fixing the light timings and having enough patrol officers, the council has approved Redflex cameras at a dozen or so intersections that catch red-light runners and speeders. There are also two radar vans that photograph speeders in various spots throughout the city. It's obvious that they only want the citation money, rather than safer streets.

I recently started trying to be a lot more efficient, but it is very difficult, like I said, due to abhorrent traffic engineering and other drivers tailgating and cutting in front and slamming their brakes. It basically comes down to saving gas or saving your life. I'm not even getting my car's rated city mileage. :( I'm so excited about gas getting expensive! I have my fingers crossed for $5.

We, had the Redflex cameras in Mpls a couple of years ago. They didn't last long. Too many complaints from people who were ticketed for speeding but they weren't actually driving. We have a lot of lawyers up here and the city finally caved in and got rid of the cameras.

I have to drive on University from Point Des Mouton to Taft which turns into Girard Park Dr. What makes things worse is our road conditions. Even the best car will bounce around on our roads. Dept. of transportation tries to say it's because of soft soil in Louisiana. Soil doesn't recognize imaginary state boundries. You drive from Texas, Arkansas, or Mississippi into Louisiana and you'll know when you've crossed the state line just by the thumps of the road. Parts of the road I ride on was once a two lane road with a wide shoulder. Instead of ripping up the road, setting down a good base for the road, and then laying down a wider road they decided to paint over the road lines and repaint them with a center turn lane leaving you to drive on what was once the shoulder.

I just moved to the Dallas, TX area a few weeks ago, but I'm from the Lafayette area (Opelousas to be precise). All of the jobs I had when I lived in Louisiana were in Lafayette.

Have you tried taking Evangeline Thruway to Taft at the times when you are working nights? I know for a fact that if you time the first 2 lights on Evangeline Thruway right, and maintain the speed limit, you can hit every light green.

I live two miles west of University so I'd have to go over 4 miles east before traveling about 5 to 6 miles south and then another mile or two west. The added miles uses more fuel than I'd be saving in mpg over time.

I'm about to invest in a Kikker 5150 Hardknock.

http://www.kikkermoto.com/

It's a scooter (49cc or 110cc) that is based on the old "bobber" motorcycles. $1500 gets you the base model. With all the options, you still come in under $2000.

Give them a look.