What are Dr. Roadmap's special tips?

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  • ldybg13 Flag

    Good Series!
    I like this guy and the things he has to say are important in the crazy times we are living in especially places where where we are spending $4 a gallon on gas. Any little bit helps. I took all the extra crap out of my truck as soon as I was done watching...something so easy I never thought about we will see if I can notice any little difference.

David Rizzo
Dr. Road Map, Dr. Road Map
www.drroadmap.com  
(714) 879-8521

David, DR. ROADMAP, Rizzo burst upon the traffic scene in late 1987 as the first person in Los Angeles to offer alternate routes to motorists who were sick and tired of being stuck in traffic. In 1990 he released to the world the most comprehensive guide ever written of off-freeway commuting in Southern California. Two years later he became the first traffic reporter to offer daily alternate routes in real time over the air on one of the most popular morning radio shows in Los Angeles. Dr. Roadmap continues to provide COMMUTE MANAGEMENT solutions with the 2006 release of his book, "Survive the Drive! How to Beat Freeway Traffic in Southern California."

What are Dr. Roadmap's special tips?

David Rizzo, fuel economy expert, explains how to drive your car to improve gas mileage.

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Host: What are Dr. Roadmap's special tips?

David Rizzo: Several things can help, these all add up cumulatively, in other words you pick up your percentage here and there, but first of all avoid traffic congestion. Easier said than done but this gone along with my theories of beating traffic, commute management because remember if you are in a gas driven car, an internal combustion engine and you are stopped in traffic congestion you are getting zero miles per gallon so put some thought into ways of beating traffic congestion. The other thing is if you are driving and you have got a stick or even an automatic that lets you select your gears, keep it in as high a gear as possible because of that gear ratio your engine will be turning over less, you will be burning less gas. So you want it in 4th, 5th overdrive as opposed to 2nd or 3rd. Yeah, lower gears are peppier and you can dart in and out of traffic but you are paying a price for that, higher gears are better. Another tip is if you have got a lot of junk in your trunk, get rid of it. For every 50 pounds of extra weight let's say it's a set of golf clubs, you loose 1% of your gas efficiency. So any extra junk in your car get rid of it that will improve your miles per gallon.

If you have got luggage rack, ski rack, bike rack on your car and you are not using it, take it off, because that cuts down on the wind or it accelerates the wind resistance. So get those racks off. Lastly in case you are wondering about drafting trucks, we see racers do it, they draft each other, bad idea, yeah you can save gas but you are asking for a crash. Those trucks toss up rocks, debris in your windshield, it can cost you your life, it's not worth drafting trucks.

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