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this post was submitted on 19 Apr 2026
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I don't drive yet so I don't really get why mileage is important. Is it because you're getting money back for fuel or is it just so you feel justified in paying to keep a car? Or is it more healthy for a car to get more driving in?
You've already paid for the gas that's in your tank, best you can do is get the most miles out of it. Long term habits that increase overall average MPG also reduce wear and make parts last longer. Biggest thing is not speeding up when you see a red light ahead.
Ever since I started thinking this way, I started finally seeing all the other cars scurrying past me to get to the same red light that we all stopped at. It compounds the calming effect to see validation through others demonstrating the futility of what I no longer choose to do.
edit: To be clear, I'm not saying I totally drag ass and block traffic. I'm just talking about smoothing out my acceleration curves a bit and the occasional person who zips around everyone else, only to hit a stoplight with the rest of us. I'm not that old yet.
Oh I'm definitely in the slow category, according to the cars behind me.
Don't get me wrong, I do the speed limit, and heck still sometimes the appropriate "5 over" if there's cars behind me.
But that's not enough for most people, they race around me anyway.
But more than just not speeding up when I see the red light, I watch the light from farther away. It's very flat here, and if you pay attention you can see the light turning from 10 or 20 seconds away, and adjust appropriately. You can even time the light to know it'll turn red before you get there.
I'm not counting seconds or anything, it's more of a vibe check. "That light has been green a looong time, it's definitely turning red before I get there."
So depending on who's behind me and ahead of me and how far away I am, I'll either start coasting down to maybe 5 or 10 under as I approach, that way I can use my brakes even less.
I get pretty good at it with the lights on my way to work. But some lights are un-timable. Their timing is almost purposely designed to waste gas.
And one stretch of lights changes depending on time of day to create a unidirectional flow of traffic. You'll hit every green going south at 3pm, but every red going north. Stuff like that.
Using brakes is wasted gas, lost efficiency. I get a whole 5 or 6 more mpg driving my wife's car, than when she drives it. Maybe more. Every time I drive it I watch the average tick up. For her it hovers around 25/26. I've seen over 31 in the same car.
Again I'm not the guy who painfully slowly accelerates, angering everyone. I know how to stand on the pedal when I need to. I just pay attention, and accelerate and brake maybe a little more smoothly.
If you accelate hard, drive fast, etc, you get lower gas mileage.
So if you drive 1000 miles per month, and you're getting 25 miles per gallon, then at $4/gallon you're paying $160 for gas a month. If you ease up and can average like 32mpg, you'll only spend $125. Better results may be possible.