Are you getting angry about the rising cost of gas? If you take that anger out behind the wheel, you could actually end up spending even more on gasoline.
Recent research showed that angry, aggressive drivers tend to engage in habits that waste fuel. Bad habits such as speeding, stop and go driving, tearing up to red lights or junctions, and then slamming on the brakes.
Every time you press the brake or gas pedal, the fuel in your gas tank turns into heat energy. Rapid acceleration floods the engine with extra gas, causing the car to burn more fuel. And riding the brakes causes the vehicle to waste all the energy used to get it up to speed. Rapid acceleration and braking waste so much gas it can reduce your gas mileage by more than 20%.
And excess speed uses more energy than driving at a slower, constant speed.
What this means is that angry, aggressive drivers who speed, tailgate and brake hard will pay the price at the gas pump. They have to fill up more often than calmer drivers who maintain steady cruising speeds and avoid unnecessary acceleration and braking.
Most drivers are unaware of how much money their aggressive driving habits may be costing them. But a new research has shown that once drivers realise the connection between their bad driving habits and the financial consequences at the gas pump, they realise that sensible driving is the way to reduce gas costs.
The study installs a device in volunteer’s vehicles that record every fast start, every hard brake, every too-fast turn around a corner. Monitors in the cars give drivers real-time feedback on how they’re doing. The study will show whether or not drivers who are presented with cast-iron evidence of their wasteful driving habits will be motivated to change.
The idea of real-time monitoring of fuel consumption in order to reduce gas costs is one embraced by a new breed of drivers called “hypermilers,” drivers who try to squeeze every last ounce of energy from the fuel they burn. Hypermilers fit their cars with monitors and devices that give them instant feedback on how modifications to their driving habits as well as their vehicles affect fuel efficiency.
One study, being done in Denver, Colorado, is hoping to find ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by altering the habits of drivers who waste fuel. Not only that because angry, aggressive drivers are also one of the main causes of accidents, and it’s hoped that by motivating them to change it will bring about a fall in accidents and deaths too.
