My last fill up was $4.05 per gallon! Is there any signs that gas prices are going to go down, or is it all up hill? There are a few small changes you can make to save on gas and save energy.

Alternative Transportation:

With the gas prices so high, it’s the first time I have seriously considered a new method of transporting myself to work. My commute in the morning is about 30 minutes either by highway or city driving. The highway is twice the distance, but more fuel efficient. City driving, my work is about 8 miles away. I am seriously considering trying to ride my bike to work at least 1 day a week. I would ride my bike to work everyday if it saves me 50 dollars a week, and is better for the environment. I figure the average speed of a bike, is 10-15 MPH, which would take me about 30-45 min to get to work. That’s not a big difference in my commute time. I would only be able to ride my bike in nice weather, and hope I don’t get too sweaty for work, we don’t have a shower here or anything.

You could also benefit by getting a more fuel efficient scooter. Jonathan Welsh at the Wall Street Journal wrote an article Born to Be … Fuel-Efficient, talking about the benefits of fuel efficient scooters.

Public Transportation:

Consider taking the train or bus to work if you can. I have a bus stop right outside my work and right outside my house. There is most likely a way to connect the two. According to the bus schedule in my area, my commute time would be 40 min by bus. It’s a slightly longer commute, but far less expensive. There was an interesting article in Forbes Magazine about Greening the Traffic Lights for public busses to allow them to glide through traffic lights saving time and energy.

Tune up your car:

There are a couple cheap simple things you can do to your car to make them more fuel efficient. The easiest thing you can do is make sure your tires are properly inflated. When your tires are properly inflated they roll better, making your car do less work. It’s pretty simple. Air is usually free at every gas station.

Another inexpensive thing you can do is buy a new air filter. Most people probably don’t even think to change this but it helps your car breathe easy making more power. The air filter is pretty accessible and you will probably be able to change this on your own. If you haven’t changed your air filter in a long time, consider it, they don’t cost much.

The couple things I did to my car that showed the biggest improvement, was changing my spark plugs, and fuel filter. This may be expensive on newer cars like mine because you practically have to take the whole engine apart to access the spark plugs now. The spark plugs alone on my car cost about $30 dollars for 6, but cost a couple hundred dollars in labor to change them. By changing my spark plugs I’ve been able to go 30 more miles on each tank, and increased my average MPG by 2 miles.

Use a Gas Card:

If you haven’t already, sign up for a gas rewards credit card. This is an easy way to save 5% each time you fill up. No extra effort on your part. Keep doing what you are doing with a new gas card and save a few dollars a month. I recommend the Shell Platinum MasterCard from Citi® and the Discover Open Road.

What other things can you do so save on gas today?

Photo by: Greg Woodhouse

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See Also:

• How much is gas costing you?