As you know, I am conducting gas mileage experiments for an upcoming article in the Car Corner column of my web site. In the last entry I told you that I was going to leave my Mini Cooper’s on-board computer set to display my continuous gas mileage, just to see how being conscience of mileage will effect my driving. It is only Friday morning (the final result really comes in tonight), but I wanted to get something out before I forget (which is another reason I have this blog, to keep some notes for future reference).
My mileage this week has averaged 29.0 mpg so far. I don’t see that changing on my way home tonight. However, I would just like to mention that this number is artificially high… if ever so slightly. Why? Glad you asked. You see this is the week before Christmas. Monday and Tuesday were normal. I took my youngest to his school and returned home then I took the oldest to his bus stop and headed off to work. Both times I go through the same traffic to get out of my neighborhood.
However, on Wednesday my sons were off school. I left for work just slightly earlier than I would normally take my youngest. However there was little traffic… because traffic at that hour is mostly due to the number of people trying to beat the worst traffic combined with school traffic. Neither of these were present on this day.
On Thursday and Friday my wife was off work (she is a teacher, but teaches in a different school district than we live which is why she had school the extra day) so I just got up when the alarm clock went off, got ready and left for work… about an hour before I normally take the youngest to school (around 6:00 AM). There was no traffic.
I checked my average mileage Tuesday night and it was at 28.3 mpg. I believe this is pretty accurate and probably would have been the week’s average had the traffic patterns not changed.
Just thought you should know.
Notice that we are only talking 7/10’s of a difference. That’s because San Antonio traffic is pretty light compared to other places… especially when I head out to New Braunfels and travel opposite the direction of traffic for about 80 percent of my drive.
