Going Green Blog

Entry #9: Driving at 60mph - or less

Recently I had to undertake a car journey of 400 miles. With four people in the car it seemed justifable. However in order to reduce fuel consumption I decided to travel at the more economical speed of between 40-60 mph rather than my more usual - get there as fast as I can speed.

At first this seems difficult - and the speed creeps up so easily. It feels slow and strange as other traffic zooms by. The only solution, I found, was to relax and accept. Of course the key to this is to have plenty of time so there is no agitation about not getting to your destination on time - so leaving earlier is essential.

And after a while it can feel like being in a slightly different world or even time zone with 80% of the traffic hurtling by as we tootle along. There is no choice but to relax and enjoy a feeling of having slowed down a bit in a turbulant world.

There was a definite temptation to speed up but to do so would be to lose the 'laid back' feeling.

So we arrived in time and more relaxed than if I had felt the compulsion to overtake and get there as fast as I could, which was my more usual mentality previously.

This is definitely a new way of driving. Not very often and slowly. Save fuel, money and stress!