Young: Most gas-saving tips fit in category of 'duh'

WACO, Texas — It's just amazing how a word or term can be sprinkled into the lexicon and spread like bread mold overnight.

I'd never heard of the term "Black Friday" when, by appearances, every newspaper in the country was referring thereto. That's the day after Thanksgiving when shoppers shift into hyperspeed and put retailers' books from the red to the black.

I'd never heard of "metrosexual" when suddenly it was crawling over the information landscape like fire ants after a rain. I'm still not sure what it means.

And now? Two weeks ago I'd never heard the term "hypermiler." In the interim I've seen profiles of the creature on the front pages of two major newspapers, as if we'd all been using the term since the invention of hot type.

A hypermiler is a driver who conserves gasoline like it's nuclear winter. He or she will shoot to exceed his vehicle's fuel economy rating by 20 percent to 50 percent. For the driver of a hybrid, that might mean getting 100 miles per gallon.

The noble pursuit involves all the things everyone should know about fuel mileage — reduced speed, proper tire inflation. It also involves things most of us rarely consider, like using the prescribed oil weight for one's car. Oil that's too thick will cause it to work harder.

I'm a fuel-conscious driver. But a few facts of fuel economy have had to hit me over the head.

I'm reminded of a worn-out blue Chevy compact and all the stuff I hauled out of its trunk, sweat streaming down my face, the day I bid it adieu.

An extra 100 pounds of weight reduces mileage by 2 percent, an equivalent of 8 cents per gallon. My little car was carrying a sumo wrestler and his obese bride around.

Some other fuel conservation considerations need no explanation.

One of the greatest abominations is rampant idling in the drive-through. The worst example is always at the bank.

In this country, idling vehicles burn as much as 3.8 million gallons of gas a day going nowhere. This is for no other reason, generally, than to not be discomforted in the heat or cold.

Some people ascribe to the belief that shutting down the car and restarting it will use more fuel. False. Not only does idling use more fuel, it wears on the car, which isn't meant to idle. It's meant to move.

The Hinkle Charitable Foundation, on a mission to curb idling (thehcf.org/antiidlingprimer.html) points out that if every American eliminated 5 minutes of needless idling daily we would save 1.4 billion gallons of gasoline annually and spare the planet 13 million added tons of carbon dioxide.

The biggest culprit delivers the double whammy of excessive speeds — jackrabbit starts at stoplights, flooring it to the next light — and idling at the next light as those driving the speed limit catch up.

I can't call myself a hypermiler, or even an adept or particularly attentive automobile owner. But I'm no idler and I'm no jackrabbit. The former goes nowhere at great cost. The latter goes nowhere at great speed.

Along with those who, with far more car than they need, lap up an increasingly finite fuel with abandon, such creatures — not the all-too-happy-to-serve oil companies — are the biggest culprits for gas prices that make us shudder.

John Young writes for the Waco Tribune-Herald.