Reference Question of the Week – 5/25/08
May 31st, 2008 Brian Herzog
As I'm sure you've heard, gas prices are on the rise. Stations around here are still hovering in the $3.90 range, but $4.00/gallon can't be far away. I am sure that's what prompted this week's exchange:
Patron: Can you tell me about, gas prices... and, um... fuel economy... ?
Me: Well, maybe. What kind of information are you looking for?
Patron: C'mon, you know, gas prices, and tips, and stuff. Is it real?
After a bit more of this, I learned that the patron:
- received an email forward from a friend with driving tips that claim to save gas, and also a list of gas stations that sell gas made from oil from Middle Eastern countries,
- wanted to know if there were real driving tips that could save gas, and,
- wanted to see national gas prices and find the cheapest gas in town.
I've seen the gas imports email before, and lately have been seeing and hearing gas saving tips everywhere. We started searching the internet for information about driving tips, and found lots. Here's my attempt at organizing those that look reliable:
Driving Tips To Save Gas
- 6 gas-saving myths from cnn.com
- Tips to Save Gas and Improve Mileage from the EPA
- How to get the best gas mileage from Consumer Reports
- Tips on pumping gas debunked on snopes.com
- Gas saving tips - fact or fiction? on NPR's All Things Considered
- "Zen driving" and other gas saving tips also from npr.org, plus suggestions from listeners
- What really saves gas, and how much from edmunds.com
- Tips to improve your gas mileage from fueleconomy.gov
- Saving money at the gas pump from the Federal Trade Commision
- Car Talk's guide to better fuel economy from Click and Clack, the Tappet brothers
Gas Price Listings
- Daily fuel gauge report from the AAA - with nice charts and graphs and links for each state
- Find Local Gas Prices from msn.com, which has both a neat map and a nice listing of which gas station is the cheapest
- Links to local gas prices from fueleconomy.gov
- Lowest local gas prices from gasbuddy.com - shows the lowest stations, as well as what gas cost one day, week, month, and year ago
Other Fuel Economy Information
- How far can you go? BankRate.com's nifty tool to visually compare how far cars can drive on a single tank of gas (via LISnews)
- Fuel Economy information from the EPA
- Trip cost calculator from the AAA - you enter your beginning and destination cities and the type of car you have, and it tells you how much gas for the trip will cost
- Why oil prices rose to more than $100/barrel - how the US energy policy drove up the price of oil (via BoingBoing)
Of course, the best tips are to drive less (by walking, biking or riding public transportation), or buy a more fuel efficient vehicle. None of those were practical options for the patron, so he was pretty happy to get this list when I emailed it to him later that day.
