Drive the speed limit

for one reason, it’s better on gas…

Unfortunately, this one took a few years to get down.
Being able to make phone calls to get out of tickets didn’t help. What actually helped, sadly, was driving with a suspended license while on probation(which in itself was idiotic). It’s amazing how difficult driving the speed limit actually is, when practically every othor motorist pushes by going 10+ over the posted limit in the slow lane. Driving slowly has stuck, for the most part, because it is actually calming and empowering to drive safely… Especially in finding that one other driver on the road who is obeying the law.

I highly recommend trying this. Force yourself, and learn to enjoy the peaceful serenity of causing so much road rage ;-)

I’m calling this done despite the fact that I found myself passing a yellow corvette last weekend.

I’m doing good enough to call this done and I’ve accomplished what I wanted to. I now always give myself enough time to get where I’m going and if I am running late I accept that I will be late and don’t try to stress and get all frantic about it.

I still find myself speeding on streets that I don’t drive regularly so I don’t have the “feeling of the limit” on those roads. But on my usual routes I”m ace.

I went on a little road trip this weekend. I was concious of the speed limit the whole way (lots of highway driving) and my car actually managed to average 43.5 miles per gallon! That is a full 4 mpg improvements over my last best tank.

I’m very close to calling this done. If I can just improve on my in-town speeding…

The one when you’re driving and you spot a cop car pulled off the road. you know that its too late to bother to slow down; They’ve already got your speed with the radar. And then your stomach is in your throat and you just keep repeating “don’t turn your lights on, don’t move, don’t turn your lights on, don’t move”...

That happened to me 4 times this weekend and 2 times last week (where did all these cops come from?) and each time it didn’t even matter becuase I wasn’t speeding to begin with. I wonder if I’ll ever get so confident in this habit that I don’t panic at the site of patrolers anymore.

Just the other day I was wondering why my gas mileage had gone up. My car is now getting between 37-39 mpg where it used to get 34-37. At first I was thinking that the increase was because I have been doing so much long-distance driving, but that doesn’t seem to be holding true. It just today occured to me that this increase started about the time I started focusing on my speed.

I’m still far from perfect with speeding, but 70 is fast enough now. I still have trouble on those highways in Oregon with the absurd limit of 55!

Attemping this to increase my gas milage.