If you’re not on Twitter, you might not understand it.  It’s like biodiesel.  You know it’s good, you might know someone who uses it, but you have no idea why or how to use it.  Plus, twitter even smells like Chinese food or french fries when you burn it!  :P  Ok, not really.  I’ve been finding Twitter really useful.  Since people are limited to communicating in 140 character blurbs (aka:  Tweets), they’re like useful digital fortune cookies, or maybe it’s more like a minute by minute zeitgeist barometer.  Well, whatever clever (or not so clever) metaphor I come up with, Twitter has been delivering tidbits of golden information to my digital front door.  I’ve discovered new music, websites, news, and productivity tips.  You are either followed or you follow others on Twitter.  I follow those who I think might offer something useful to me.  Hopefully, those who follow me feel the same way about my tweets.  But there’s also a social aspect.  I’m definitely using Twitter as a networking tool.  There are a lot of cool local professionals and artists on Twitter, and it’s been rewarding to peak into their life for that brief moment they post a tweet. You can really get lost in all those tweets flashing by on your screen (and if you really want a wast of time where tweets litterally flash across the screen, then go to Twistori.com!)

But as someone who will venture into biodiesel this summer (ok, getting back to this post’s theme), I need to be careful with it.  I don’t want to waste my time on it and not get anything in return.  If I get that Mercedes diesel, I need to know if I’m going to save on fuel costs.  On Twitter, if I’m not getting anything useful from it, I need to reign it in and stop spending productive time on it.  Like anything, it’ll be all good in moderation.  If you’re not on twitter, get on it and follow my twitter account mixmistakooz  (if you live in the STL, then also follow STL_Twits).

Last month, I challenged myself to drive with ninja-like tactics to get as many miles per gallon that my four cylinder, ‘04 Honda Accord could get.  It gets 32 Hwy and 23 City and about 28-29 combined.  With my “ninja driving,” I got around 33 mpg combined!  Not bad!  With gas prices rising, this is a sensible thing to do in order to save extra money/go more places. With a gallon of gas up to $3.70, that roughly translates to 11 cents a mile (3.70 dollars per gallon divided by 33 mpg).

How much is it per mile to take the Metrolink and how does that factor into my overall cost per mile?  Well, to take the Metrolink from my home to work, it’s four dollars round trip.  Now, here’s my dilemma:  do I figure out the cost per mile as if I was driving from work or do I compute it as actual distance on the Metrolink?  The Metro is a bit more direct than driving, but I don’t think it’s not too far off.  Since I drive to the Metro station, I’ll compute it from the driving distance from the Metro station.  That sounds like a reasonable compromise.  21.7 miles each way from the station versus 24.5 miles from my house.  At 43.4 miles, the cost per mile is 9 cents (4/43.4).  It would take $4.77 in gas to travel 43.4 miles (43.4*.11).  It would cost 5.39 to drive from my house (49 miles * .11).  Factor in that I travel 4.4 miles round trip to and from the station, an extra 48 cents, it costs 4.48 (metro fare + (4.4*.11)) round trip:  a savings of 91 cents!  Basically, I save a buck, every time I take the Metrolink.  That’s easy math.  Take the Metro 10 times a month, I save 120 bucks a year.    If I continue to ninja drive and take the Metro, then I’m easily saving over $256 a year doing this (If gas stays at 3.70 per gallon).  That’s basically a car payment for me.

But I think it’s more than that.  Not only am I helping the environment by not driving my car, I’m also getting more exercise (I walk a fair distance from the metro to work), and plus, I’m extending the life of my car and keeping it’s value up.  It’s a win/win situation!

With gas at 3.25-3.50 a gallon, it’s getting really expense to drive back and forth from work five days a week.  So, I decided to see how much gas I save by driving a certain way:  ninja driving.  According to maps.google.com, the trip is exactly 24.5 miles which is 49 miles round trip.  According to www.fueleconomy.gov, my car gets about 31 mpg highway, and 23 city.  It’s four cylinder, manual, Honda Accord Coupe.

According to the way of the ninja…driver, there are certain techniques one can use to maximize your fuel economy:  this is especially true for those of us who drive manuals.  For example, on relatively steep inclines, you either put the car out of gear or push in the clutch.   When getting off the highway or stopping for a red light, I also do this.  I use the car’s natural momentum and friction to get me to the light, yet slow me down enough to minimize wear on the brake pads.  However, there are two things that I think really help:  1) when I accelerate, I make sure I don’t get above 2000 rpms.  By doing this, my acceleration is slower, but accelerating too aggressively burns a lot of gas!  Acceleration and deceleration are the reasons why city driving burns up so much gas.  2)  I either go the speed limit or just five miles above it.  I keep it under 2k rpm as much as possible, but this isn’t possible for safe driving on highways: thus my five mph rule.  When it gets up to 65 or 70, I try my best to stay at the speed limit.

With this in mind, here are the results of my “ninja” driving.  I topped off my tank, set my trip meter to “0,” and I drove for about a week and a half on one tank of gas.  That doesn’t say much, but after filling up my tank with 13.119 gallons of gas and the trip meter at 437.8 miles, with ninja driving, I was able to get 33.17 mile per gallon!  Keep in mind this is a combined result!  The combined result of my car for “normal” driving is 26 mpg, but this assumes 50/50 highway/city driving.  I probably do 80/20, and so, my combined mpg should be closer to 30.5 mpg.  So, basically, I got an extra 2.6 miles per gallon.  On a 13 gallon tank, that’s an extra 33.8 miles!  If I’m buying a tank of gas every week and half, that’s 36 tanks of gas a year.  By ninja driving, I can go an extra 1216.8 miles at no additional gas costs -or- save $117.36 a year on gas (at 3.26 a gallon).  That’s nothing to sneeze at!

My new project is to see how much money per mile I spend to get to and from work by using a combination of the Metrolink and driving!  We’ll see how that turns out!