Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Slowing Down

Well, when we watched gas prices in our area reach $4.00, Bart and I finally decided to change our driving habits to attempt to conserve a little gas. Consequently, I have started driving at 65 mph instead of 75 mph. And let me tell you, it is AWESOME!!!

So I have always driven in the fast lane. I didn't realize it, but it's really quite a stressful thing.

I have always tried to be a courteous driver, so in addition to watching very attentively for cops, I always kept an eye on the guy behind me to see if he was coming up faster than me. If he was then I would move to the slower lane. If someone came up extremely fast, or there wasn't room to move over immediately, the people would get mad at you for being in the fast lane.

Or if someone was driving extremely slow in the fast lane, I'd have to hit the breaks, or sometimes switch lanes to pass them if they wouldn't move over, which would really irritate me. It was just...well, a very stressful thing!

Now that I am in the slow lane all the time, life is GREAT! I don't have to worry about people who come up fast behind me because they expect that I'm going slow and know that they are the ones that need to change lanes if they want to pass me. Also, hardly anyone actually drives the speed limit, so I can set my speed control and never have to worry about slowing down for slower cars. My drive has gone from very intense to very peaceful. It's AWESOME!!!

And, we're getting 10 mpg more than we were. I love our Prius.

1 comment:

janae said...

Ironic that you should post this, because Samuel randomly mentioned to me this morning how grateful you two probably are that you own a Prius. Especially because hybrids are probably more expensive now that they are in much higher demand. Lucky, lucky!! (BTW, gas here is about the same as it was in Utah, but I hear in Cali its about 4.50 a gallon. Ouch!)