The 60 MPH Challenge – Day 1
Posted by Mike The Highwayman on July 17, 2008
The results from Day 1 of the 60 MPH Challenge:
Distance Traveled Yesterday: 332 miles
Distance Traveled Today: 330 miles (down .60%)
Gas Purchased Yesterday: 17.439 gallons
Gas Purchased Today: 15.862 gal (Down 9.04%)
MPG Yesterday: 19.04 MPG
MPG Today: 20.80 MPG (Up 9.24%)
Time to travel to Conway Yesterday: 2:12
Time to travel to Conway Today: 2:32 (Up 15.15%)
Time to travel to Columbia (from Georgetown) Yesterday: 2:56
Time to travel to Columbia (from Georgetown) Today: 3:03 (Up 2.97%)
Analysis: For a 9% gain in MPG, it took me 15% longer to get to Conway and 3% to get back to Columbia. There is a problem of ferreting out the exact savings from the highway speed reduction because there was other travel in the middle. However, the non-highway travel was similar for both days, so the MPG for both of those segments would be the same. However, the total effect would be lowered by the (presumably) 0% change for the non-Columbia to Conway highway sections.
I would like to see what happens tomorrow, when I will go back to my original driving habits and see what happens to my mileage then. I think the gas consumption values for the previous day were skewed by the fact that I was sitting waiting for a train for 5-10 minutes on that tank of gas, so that would increase the consumption on that tank. Tomorrow’s tank should not have that factor. However, it would appear that the cost/benefit was a wash, as the lower gas consumption didn’t make up for the increased time on the road. But I’d like to see what happens tomorrow to see what the result is for that.
