Light-footed driving style gains dedicated following

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VANCOUVER - Recession or not, a lot of Canadians are getting ready to hit the road this summer and, not coincidentally, fuel prices are making their seasonal trek northward like Canada geese on their annual migration.

Pump prices are already above a dollar a litre in many parts of the country as retailers anticipate a spike in demand.

That's bound to eat into anyone's vacation budget, especially if the holiday involves driving recreational vehicles or towing boats and trailers.

But drivers can reduce or eliminate that extra cost if they adopt a few basic hypermiling techniques, says a Canadian expert in the fuel-sipping practice.

"With the gas going up again people are looking for every possible way of making a difference," says Winnipegger Manuel Santos.

Santos says websites like GreenDriving Canada (http://members.shaw.ca/greendriving/index.htm), which is operated by Kevin Hansen and dedicated to hypermiling, are getting more hits these days. The light-footed driving style has had a dedicated following for years, but interest surged with the advent of hybrid vehicles and last year's skyrocketing fuel prices.

Santos, an industrial electronics engineer who supplies some of the content to Hansen's website, says hypermiling is a discipline that uses a tool kit of techniques to maximize the engine's efficiency and minimize the energy losses inherent in a vehicle's brakes and drivetrain.

Advanced hypermilers can attain fuel-economy levels comparable to hybrids and sometimes even better, he says.

The basic techniques are really not much different from what every road nanny advises: Ditch the jackrabbit starts, drive at or below the speed limit, anticipate traffic and upcoming stops to minimize abrupt speed changes.

After that it gets more complicated and, in some cases, brushes the edge of what's legal or perhaps safe, lending it a slightly rebellious edge. We're not endorsing these techniques.

"As you advance in your skill and your goals there is always a caveat that is behind these techniques," says Santos, who is the Canadian representative for Cleanmpg.com, another website devoted to raising fuel economy and lowering emissions.

Assuming your vehicle is in a good state of tune, the place to start is the tires. Pump 'em up, says Santos.

"What's on the door jamb that the manufacturer recommends is the absolute minimum pressure we should be supporting on our vehicles," he says.

Boosting a tire's pressure lowers its rolling resistance.

"If you have your tires inflated a little bit higher than what the manufacturer recommends, your tires will run cooler, they'll last longer, they'll wear more evenly and you'll save a great deal on fuel."

Santos says it's safe to run tires at or near the maximum pressure listed on the tire's sidewall. It's a controversial practice but he insists it will not cause undue wear on modern radial tires.

Once you're on the highway, Santos's next suggestion won't endear you to some of your fellow travellers.

"Perhaps the most important thing you can do is drive at or below the speed limit," says Santos, who rarely drives faster than 85 kilometres an hour.

It has to do with physics and the fact that power and speed don't have a one-to-one relationship.

As speeds double, the force needed quadruples. It takes four times as much engine power to move a car at 100 kph as it does at 50 kph, with the attendant increase in fuel consumption.

Cruising below the limit is obviously easier on a multi-lane highway than two-lane secondary road. Santos says courtesy is his watchword.

"There will always be folks that consider you an obstacle," he says. "Most important is to keep an eye on the rear-view mirror, be courteous, make sure you're not obstructing the traffic and they have an opportunity to pass you."

"I will hug the right lane and I'll sometimes even pull over if I see there's a column of traffic behind me that is approaching at a higher speed. I'll let them go because in the end we all have different priorities."

Santos recommends turning off cruise control when climbing hills. Cruise control systems automatically boost engine revs to maintain speed on hills.