With the high cost of gas, increasing your car’s miles per gallon is the best way to save money and make a tank of gas last longer. The following tips don’t require upgrading car parts or drastically changing your driving habits. 

For years a group of people, who call themselves hypermilers, have been experimenting with ways to dramatically increase the mpg of any car. One Web site, hypermiling.com, is filled with ways to get more per gallon, and the site is filled with stories of people who’ve gained as much as 10 mpg on their first attempt. 

Hypermiling is based primarily on the laws of physics. Incorporating concepts like friction and momentum, hypermilers have been able to pinpoint driving habits that waste the most fuel. 

One such habit is that drivers can be too close to the car in front of them. If the car in front of you brakes quickly, you’ll be left with less time to react, and will probably brake as well. Not only does this increase the risk of a collision, but it also destroys any momentum the car has built up. In order to build speed, a car has to increase its consumption of gas. Braking causes the car to slow down, so when you speed up again, you’re forced to use more gasoline.

Hypermilers recommend giving yourself 2-3 seconds worth of reaction time no matter where you are. That way if a car brakes, instead of having to brake as well, you can simply take your foot of the gas. By allowing your car to slow down on its own, you create more time for no fuel to be used. By cutting off the car’s fuel earlier, you increase the chances of not having to break, or at the very least reduce the amount of time the car’s burning fuel. 

Coast to a stop

Even if you have to brake, letting the car coast will save you 3-4 seconds worth of gas. While this may not sound like much, it’s estimated that drivers brake up to 25 percent more than they need to. This means that not only does a car’s momentum get broken more than is needed, but it must also increase its fuel intake unnecessarily.

The concept of coasting instead of braking also can be applied to stopping as well. Instead of driving towards a red light before stopping, when you see a red light, simply take your foot off the gas, and coast to the light. When a car is at a complete stop, it’s getting 0 mpg. Even when your car is stopped, it’s still using gas. So by coasting to a light, you take the gas that you would have used to drive to the light, and set it aside for when your car is idle.

By coasting to the light, you also increase the time it takes to reach the light. This in turn increases your chances of having the light change before you reach it. Then you would have saved gas by coasting and made it easier for you to slow to the speed of any cars in front of you that were stopped at the light. 

And don’t rely on just red lights to start coasting. If you see brake lights, know you’re coming to a road or town where you’ll have to slow down, or you can see a group of cars moving slower than you, instead of driving at regular speed until you have to adjust by braking, start coasting early on to save fuel and avoid wasting the momentum created by burning fuel.

Follow the 2-3 second rule

Obviously there will be situations where you’re forced to come to a complete stop, like traffic jams and accidents. But since a car at rest gets 0 mpg, it’s important to try and keep your car moving, even if it’s at a crawl. One of the easiest and most popular ways to do this is to use the 2-3 second gap you have between you and the car in front of you to your advantage. When you see congestion approaching, start coasting, increasing your gap as you approach the group of cars.

If the cars in the traffic jam are continuously stopping and going, use your hopefully large gap to instead drive at a slow but constant speed. And if you do have to stop, wait until you have a large gap again before you start driving once more at a slow, constant speed. That way you decrease that amount of time your car is at a stop, and you do the same for cars behind you. If you’re always moving, then those following you will as well. However, if the traffic is at a stand still, and minutes go by between cars moving forward, it’s a good idea to turn off your car to save gas.

A good way to keep a slow, constant speed is to use your cruise control. The car will have fewer fluctuations in speed if the cruise control is on. Another good use for your car’s cruise control is to accelerate. When a car gradually increases its speed, it uses gas than if it were slowly brought up to speed. And cruise control usually lets you increase the speed by as little as 1 mph. So using your cruise control to speed up will both save gas when accelerating and when trying to keep a constant speed.

Slowly increasing speed also applies to red lights. Don’t quickly accelerate from a rest to whatever speed you want to go, this will only waste fuel. Furthermore, if you drive a manual transmission, if you’re on an incline where your car will roll forward, let gravity help you start moving before using gas. This also applies to passing on hills. Instead of trying to speed up to pass while going up a hill, wait until you have an opportunity on a flat strip of road or when going down the hill.

Increase your mpg

Aside from the fuel saving driving strategies listed above, here are a few small changes you can make that will improve your miles per gallon as well. Air conditioning can waste as much as 14 percent of your fuel, and so rolling down your windows instead will still keep you cool. But by the same token, open windows when you’re driving over 40 mph will create drag. Also, bike and luggage racks on the roof of your car create drag and reduce fuel efficiency. If you don’t use the rack, it’s a good idea to just take it off.

When driving a manual transmission, change gears when rotations per minute are between 2,000 and 2,500. Doing so will reduce fuel consumption by up to 15 percent. And while driving on the interstate, doing 70 mph instead of 80 will improve your mpg by close to 40 percent for every 10 miles you drive. And it’s very important to always keep your tires properly inflated. When tires lose air, they create more friction on the road, decreasing efficiency, and they also get more wear than they would if they were inflated.

One final tip is to avoid driving short distances. Leaving your car at home and walking, biking, or finding some other way to get to your destination use none of your car’s gas. Also, when you first start driving, the engine is cold, and uses more fuel than it would once it is warmed up. But don’t idle your car to heat the engine, as that simply wastes fuel that could otherwise be used to move the car.

The main strategy hypermilers have is to drive gently, decrease breaking and accelerating, and use momentum to their advantage. As mentioned on hypermiling.com, drivers can gain 10 miles per gallon on their first try alone. With practice, you can be using less gas over a longer period of time, making it last longer, so you won’t be spending so much at the pump.

Sam Bonham of Tellico Plains is a rising senior at McCallie School in Chattanooga.