By John Carlin
WSLS10 Anchor
Published: April 28, 2008

When you were growing up there was the admonition from your mother.  “Eat your vegetables.”

We could add whole wheat bread, getting enough sleep, and 30 minutes of daily exercise to the list of things that are good for you that don’t really want in your life.

Here’s the 2008 version. “Always coast to the stoplight.”

Picture this.  A young man is headed off to college.  His mother kisses him on the cheek as he prepares to get into his car stuffed with mini-fridge, pillows, and posters.  Mom says, “Be sure to eat your veggies honey.” Dad says, “Check your oil son.” And they both say, “Be sure to coast to the stop lights.”

At some time in history, we didn’t eat vegetables because we were supposed to – it was all we had.  All bread was made from whole wheat and people worked so hard at manual labor they didn’t need additional exercise.  All the familiar advice grew out of changes in society.  Likewise gas wasn’t always 3.50 a gallon.

Whether it’s to save money or the planet, everyone is trying to conserve gasoline.  We have given you countless 10 On Your Side tips on how to drive gently in order to save gas.  Like you needed to hear it from us.  The mantra has become the background beat in the rhythm of life in 2008.  And yet…

I re-discovered a little used feature in my car the other day.  It’s a read-out that shows me the miles per gallon in the moment.  Having just spent about 60.00 filling up, I started playing with it. 

To my surprise, I looked down as I was rolling downhill and I was getting 117 miles to the gallon!  Then I let off the gas and the number got bigger.  I put the car in neutral and rolled down a longer hill at 45 miles per hour on route 419, and it hit 152 mpg! 

At the stoplight I started off normally and it showed 8 mpg.  At the next one, I crept forward – to the dismay of the guy behind me, but got a number more like 15. 

And so I made my way back to the Cave Spring area from Salem.  Coasting, rolling in neutral up to stop lights, and accelerating slowly whenever I had stopped.  Most of the time the number was better than the 19 mpg the car averages.  There may be some value to actually changing 30 years of driving habits.

We’ve done stories about people exercising and the rest of the things that are supposed to be good for them.  The rule of thumb is that it takes six weeks to create a habit.

Sooo… I’m gonna try to drive gently from now until mid-June.  You may see me beating the steering wheel as I urge the car over the top of a hill on pure momentum.  You may cuss me at a stoplight as I inch forward a little too slowly, and you may see me slide it into neutral as I roll up to a stoplight at 117 mpg.

I actually have two kids headed to college this fall.  As we all hug good-by – I’ll let you know what we tell ‘em.

Tell us what you’re doing to lessen the pinch when it comes to gas prices. Click here to comment