I have been seeing a lot of buzz about hypermiling recently, but in all honesty, I had been avoiding reading any of the articles until today. I think that maybe I am just really bitter about gas prices right now and felt like the articles were an orchestrated attempt by the media to assuage the vitriol of gas-price hating people like me. I have calmed down now, though, and so I have decided to take a look at all the hype about hyper-milers.

Basically, hypermilers are people who maximize the MPGs their cars get by using a bunch of various strategies, sometimes getting as much as 60 MPG or more on a car that normally get 34 MPG. Some recommended hypermiling techniques are simple to implement and will definitely decrease driving stress and gas use. Driving the speed limit, keeping the car tuned and keeping the air conditioning off are all ways to get better gas mileage. We just recently took the Thule rack off the roof to help reduce wind resistance and improve our gas mileage; if you have a truck, using a bed cover will also help improve your MPG.

Some of the other recommended hypermiling techniques are much more controversial. I personally get nervous when I see people drafting big rigs in an effort to try to save gas, and I don’t think I’d feel comfortable shifting into neutral and turning off the engine while coasting. But those techniques also supposedly help people get better gas mileage. Great gas mileage is definitely something to aim for, but it shouldn’t come at the cost of safety.

More info on hypermiling:

• CleanMPG.com
• Edmunds.com