The Economics of Academia: Getting By with Ridiculous Gas Prices

I filled up my gas tank today, hitting $30 and nearly had a heart attack. I drive a 2000 Honda Civic with a small tank (10 gallons, I believe) and never thought I would see the day where I broke $25 filling up. I remember the days (here's where I get to sound like my grandparents, reminiscing of the good ol' days) when gas prices were $1, and then $1.05. That was the summer of my junior year in high school, 2001. At that time I had a 1986 Firebird Trans Am, which only cost $15-20 to fill, and I thought nothing of driving to New Hampshire every week to visit some friends.

Now, I grimace every time I have to make a trip outside my normal routine.

What's a student to do?

All of us in academics can truthfully say we do not do it for the money. This rings even more true for students, and in light of the rising gas prices, I did a sort of experiment to try and stretch our gas dollar even further. I hope it helps you in some way.

At about 55 mph, your engine is running at its most efficient level, giving you the most mileage out of each gallon of gas. Anything over this (or under, as is the case for city driving) and you lose efficiency. Obviously, one cannot go 55 mph down South Main unless one wants to attract unwanted attention and a hefty speeding ticket. But on the highway, it is feasible to cruise at 55-60 mph in the right hand lane, and it's actually worth it.

Every week I have the same travel routine, and so two weeks ago I put this to a test. When I was on the highway, I kept my speed at about 70-75, which is still considered "slow" in Massachusetts. By the end of the week, I had logged 296 miles on my tank of gas. Considering that my car is estimated at achieving 33-35 mpg with a ten gallon tank, this is less than optimal. I'm not great at math, but that sounds like I only got about 29mpg for that week.

Last week, I had the same travel routine, but kept my speed at 60 mph on the highway, and stayed in the right hand lane. That week, I got 356 miles to my tank of gas, making my mileage at about 35 mpg.

What's the big picture? What are the gains or losses? Well, if we go under the assumption that I should be getting 33mpg, and we take the difference in mileage for the two weeks (296 vs 356), the picture becomes clearer. The first week's mileage was 60 miles less than the second week, and using 33mpg as our base figure, that means that on the first week, about two gallons of fuel was wasted. At $3.25 a gallon, I wasted $6.50. What did I gain from the higher speed on the first week? About 5-7 minutes on my commute. For me, that's simply not worth $6.50.

Some other things we can do besides this to stretch our gas dollar are the following:
-Change your oil every 3000-5000 miles
-Change your air filter twice a year, or every 12,000 miles if you do a lot of driving.
-Change your fuel filter every 30,000 miles (if you don't have your car manual), or the increment specified by your car manual.
-Keep your tires inflated at the recommended psi (you can find this on the sticker posted inside the door frame, on the latching side)

If you are mechanically inclined (or are willing to learn some of the basics to save more money), most of these maintenance things you can do yourself. Here are a few online articles to get you started, if you are interested.
http://www.edmunds.com/ownership/howto/articles/43786/article.html (Air Filter)
http://www.edmunds.com/ownership/howto/articles/43788/article.html (Change Oil)
http://autorepair.about.com/od/regularmaintenance/ss/fuel_filter.htm (Fuel Filter)

Even if you do not intend to do any of these maintenance procedures yourself, make sure they get done. Try the experiment I did and see what your results are. I think you will be surprised.

Cheers,
Steve