That was indeed my first thought, too.quote:
idle gets 0 MPG.
My mom used to do that years ago (probably still does, though there's not many RR crossings where she lives now).quote:
Originally posted by davefr:
Gas has never been higher yet I rarely see people, except myself, turning off the car at a railroad crossing waiting for the train or while stopped in a construction zone. People just idle away at 0 mpg.
One would have to take into account, of course, the fact that most pollution and unburned fuel gets released during a cold startup, which is not the case if the engine has only been shut off for a few minutes.quote:
Originally posted by Tosh:
One could also argue that re-starting a car releases more unburned fuel and pollutants than just leaving it running, but of course that depends on a lot of factors, especially the time spent idling.
UPS shuts their trucks off to save fuel. Back in the early 90's when I worked for an LTL carrier we did the same thing. Drivers were required to turn the trucks off anytime they were stopped. The starters are built heavy enough that replacing one was a rare event, and only happened in some of the older city units that were near the end of service anyway.quote:
Originally posted by Tosh:
Not to open a can of worms, but I'd rather save my starter motor and battery than save drops of gas. One could also argue that re-starting a car releases more unburned fuel and pollutants than just leaving it running, but of course that depends on a lot of factors, especially the time spent idling.
At $3 per gallon of fuel and 0.2 gph idling consumption, a 10 minute idle burns 10 cents of fuel. (Not that I would idle for 10 minutes, but I reckon I'd idle for 5 minutes, depending on the circumstances.) I'm disappointed that a car should consume 10% of its 60 MPH consumption just idling, which is what 0.2gph works out as.
It's likely that UPS shuts off their trucks during deliveries more for insurance and legal reasons than actual gas and money saving reasons.
'Commonly quoted' doesn't necessarily mean accurate. Are you backing out of the original 0.2 gph claim as seen on your Scanguage? The Google search I did turned up this page (from India):quote:
Originally posted by brianl703:
By the way, I've done a Google search and the most commonly quoted figure for the amount of gas a car uses at idle is between 1/2 and 1 gallon per hour.
No. You are saying it should be lower...everything I've seen indicates that it should be higher.quote:
Originally posted by Tosh:
'Commonly quoted' doesn't necessarily mean accurate. Are you backing out of the original 0.2 gph claim as seen on your Scanguage?