Fuel Saving Tips

Some Hill Suggestions

While going uphill is of course going to kill your MPG, a hill can still be your friend. Consider some options when dealing with a hill: - For many hills, ease up on the gas (factor in whether you'll be greatly inconveniencing traffic behind you though, if you care...). It's okay to lose some MPH on the hill (see the reward part below for why!). - Before you reach the downhill, you may be on a fairly level road and, if possible, continue with your speed until you get to the downhill. - Reap your reward while going downhill. You just invested energy to get to the top of that hill, and downhill is a wonderful treat for your MPG. If you're going much slower than before you arrived at the hill, use the hill as your opportunity to get back up to your cruising speed. If you're already going the speed you want, coast and maintain that speed. Gravity may fight with you on the uphill, but it will help you out on the downhill, and we want to make as much use of that help as we can. While this sounds blatantly obvious, 'accelerating downhill is better on your MPG than accelerating uphill,' I am always surprised how many people ignore it. Perhaps they are not concerned about their MPG. Lastly, to give you a mental image of the energy involved with a hill, consider riding a bicycle up the same hill. If you want to conserve your own energy, are you going to race up the hill? Are you going to pedal quickly on the flat before the downhill? Are you going to slow down while going downhill? I myself would rather go slower up the hill (technically I'm forced to because I get tired), level out a comfortable pace, and then either coast downhill, or use that extra downhill energy to get some more speed so I can use it to allow me to coast farther.