Drive55.org - Proof

V6 Cyl, 5 Spd Auto Trans, EPA 29/20

This RWVER (Real World Vehicle Efficiency Report) journey started in Sacramento, CA where I got on I-80 and drove east to the Hwy 12 exit towards Napa through the rolling hills of wine country through Sonoma and Santa Rosa to the Sebastopol, CA, area where I stayed overnight. The next day we drove to the coast, then went south on HWY 1 to Bodega Bay, where we again turned east to Hwy 101, south to Hwy 37, which took us across the Bay and connects with I-80 at Vallejo, which we took back to Sacramento.

Sunday, 13 November 2005

4 Cyl, 4 Spd Auto Trans, EPA 22/28

This RWVER (Real World Vehicle Efficiency Report) journey started in Sacramento, CA where I got on I-5 and drove first to Willows and then took back roads to Red Bluff, CA, where I stayed overnight, and then over the mountain range through the Mendocino forest on forest roads M1 & M21 to Hwy 101. In Ukiah I stayed a night and the next day drove to Lake Sedona, Guerneville and Cazadero before heading back to Sacramento.

2005 Toyota Highlander 32 MPG @ 55 MPH

Saturday, 05 November 2005

V6, Auto - EPA 19/25 MPG (Hybrid 33/28/30)

This journey was from Sacramento to the Community center in Sebastopol, CA. I rented the vehicle from Hertz and reset the trip meter when I topped off the tank before leaving Sacramento at 10 AM, arriving at the first stop at 11:50 AM.

Cruise control set on 55 MPH: (32 MPG)
Sacramento to Sebastopol exit off Hwy 101, 100 miles, 2 hours, 3.11 gallons = 32.15 MPG

Cruise control set on 60 MPH: (25 MPG)
Sebastopol exit to Sebastopol Community Center and then return to Sacramento: 119 miles, 2 hours 4.80 gallons = 24.79 MPG

Download a RWVER (Real World Vehicle Efficiency Report) form you can use to calculate and report your savings.

180 miles on 4 gallons of gas, 45 MPG

Wednesday, 02 November 2005

Noting the bias of a recent article seeking to prove or disprove the potential savings that result from obeying the speed limit and never exceeding 55 MPH, I decided to do a test myself on a recent trip from Sacramento to Oakland, California, a 180 mile round trip. I rented a 2005 Kia Rio from Hertz and topped off the tank just before I left at 11 AM on Tuesday, November 1st, 2005.

The Kia is a compact 4 door with a 4 speed auto transmission. It is equipped with a/c but I did not need it. The car did not have cruise control, so I manually kept the speed between 55 and 60 MPH, I accidently hit 65 a couple of times. I used the on board trip meter which indicated I had driven 180 miles when I pulled in for gas upon my return to Sacramento.

I arrived in downtown Oakland at 12:40 PM, one hour and forty minutes! I did some shopping and visited a client. By 3 PM I was back on the freeway headed toward Sacramento. This time traffic was thicker and an accident closed several lanes so it took 3 hours to get home.

A little after 6 PM I pulled in to a local station and filled the tank - it took exactly 4 gallons. This means that I got 45 MPG in this $10,000 4 door car, (rated by EPA at 32 MPG hwy) and clearly didn't lose a significant amount of time on the first leg of my trip.

It is important to note the return trip took an extra hour and a half because some lead-foot speeder had overturned his SUV on the freeway, shutting down several lanes for hours as rescue workers labored to free the fool and clean up the mess.

Driven to spend

Sunday, 11 September 2005

Study Shows How Transit, More Transportation Choices Reduce Cost Burdens on Families and Regions

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Surface Transportation Policy Project (STPP) and the Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT) released a study June 10th, 2005, Driven to Spend: Pumping Dollars out of Our Households and Communities, which shows that families are paying a high price to meet their transportation needs and families in areas with fewer transportation choices carry even greater burdens.

Driven to Spend updates prior transportation cost studies published by STPP and CNT, but for the first time provides information on the effect of gas prices on family budgets. The study ranks 28 metropolitan areas on their combined transportation and housing costs and recommends specific actions that governments – federal, state and local – can take to reduce the burden of transportation costs for families by investing in more transportation options.

Key findings of Driven to Spend include:

• Households in regions that have invested in public transportation reap financial benefits from having affordable transportation options, even as gasoline prices rise.

• Low-income families are unduly impacted by higher transportation costs since transportation expenditures claim a higher percentage of their family budgets.

• For the first time, the study analyzed the effects of gasoline price hikes and ranked areas by the jump in household expenditures due gas prices. From 2003-2004, Los Angeles area families paid $316 more per household for gasoline, with families in the Kansas City metro area paying $312 more for the second highest increase. The New York metro area posted the smallest increase at $220 per household.

Families in the Houston (TX) metropolitan area have the highest overall transportation expenditures at 20.9 percent, followed by the Cleveland (OH) and Detroit (MI) metro areas at 20.5 percent, Tampa (FL) at 20.4 percent, and Kansas City (MO) at 20.2 percent. The national average was 19.1 percent, making 2003 the second highest year for transportation costs as a share of family budget in the last twenty years. Transportation expenditures in 2002 set a record for the period at 19.2 percent.

The five areas where families expended the smallest share of their household budgets for transportation services were the Baltimore (MD) metro area at 14 percent, Portland (OR) at 15.1 percent, New York (NY) and Washington, DC areas at 15.4 percent and Philadelphia (PA) at 15.9 percent.

“Transportation costs are already too high and recent spikes in gas prices only make the burden on families heavier. This is a wakeup call to Congress to use the pending federal transportation bill to strengthen commitments to transit and other travel options to help families save money,” said Anne E. Canby, president of the Surface Transportation Policy Project.

“We have an opportunity to use the power of this nearly $300 billion federal commitment to help families and local economies by providing more transportation choices,” Canby added.

“The big squeeze is on, with wages down and housing and transportation costs at record levels. Transportation is one area where we can do something to help families and regions spend less, but it depends on transportation officials making wiser use of flexible federal dollars to provide less costly alternatives to automobile travel,” said Scott Bernstein, president of the Center for Neighborhood Technology, a co-author of the study.

The report in its entirety can be found at www.transact.org.

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