You Can Improve Your Gas Mileage Just By Changing The Way You Park

You can improve your gas mileage just by changing the way you park your car. It is one of the many easy and simple things you can do to increase your fuel mileage.

Is this what you do when enter a parking lot? You enter the lot and the first thing you do is head for the parking area nearest to the entrance to the mall or the store where you are going. There are not any spaces available at the entrance because everyone, like you, tries to find the closest spaces.

Since you did not find any spaces initially you drive up and down the closest rows to see if you can find a parking place that is reasonably close to the entrance or you sit in one place and wait for a parking space to open up.

These parking behaviors will cost you gas mileage. That also means it will cost you money. When you wait to see if any parking spaces will become available you are sitting and idling your engine. When you idle, you are getting zero miles per gallon. Zero miles per gallon is the worst fuel economy you can get.

Alternatively if you are slowly cruising along the parking rows still hoping to find a close spot, you are burning fuel at a tremendous rate relative to the speed you are going. Inevitably you have to stop behind another car that is waiting or you stop at spaces that you think are opening up. Once again this causes you to idle and again you end up getting zero miles per gallon fuel economy.

If you think that a few seconds of extra idling is not going to use much fuel, think again. If you only spend 1 minute a day waiting for a parking space then you would roughly be burning fuel for 30 minutes or a half hour each month.

One half hour of burning fuel a month is the equivalent of burning fuel an extra 6 hours per year. Would you ever leave your car sitting and idling for six hours doing nothing but burning fuel? Absolutely not. But in essence you are letting your car sit and idle for 6 hours if your parking habits involve always looking for the closest parking space.

In what way can you change your habits to prevent this wasteful burning of gas? You can improve gas mileage and stop burning extra fuel with this very simple and very easy solution. Your goal should be to park far away from the store or mall instead of trying to park as close as you can. The farther away from the entrance you go, the more empty parking spaces you will find. If you head to the parking rows far from the entrance, as soon as you enter the parking lot, you should find a parking place right away.

By parking far away you save all the fuel you would have wasted waiting for and looking for a parking place close in. There is an another benefit to finding a parking place far from the entrance. Not only will you improve gas mileage and save money but you will get more exercise as you walk the additional distance from your car. It's great for your wallet and great for your body.

Scott Siegel is the author of a 143 page manual of industry insider information on saving gas and money at the pump. Visit us to learn how you can get better gas mileage. Find out how to increase gas mileage

By Scott Siegel