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Anyone who can drive below 25 MPH should be canonized

In these days of high gas prices and a failing economy, I’m trying out new methods to save a couple pennies. One of the best ways to save on gas is to simply drive slower. It makes sense—the less you accelerate, the less gas you use. The idea is to drive as if you don’t have any brakes—to stop slowly by losing momentum. Slamming on the brakes indicates unnecessary acceleration.

Since starting this practice, I’ve noticed a decent increase in my gas mileage. But the real story is in observation of my fellow commuters.

Once I started slowing down in traffic, I started seeing all this unnecessary acceleration. It’s amazing (in the negative sense). There has to be some underlying social regiment to simply move faster. I believe we have all been conditioned to drive at least 25 MPH at all times. This seems to be the magic boundary that every car should be . Think about it, how often do you see speed limits below 25 MPH?

What’s crazy is how drivers need to get to this speed no matter what. Accerating towards red lights, maintaining this speed with a stop sign ahead. Its rare to find a kindred slowsky like myself, coasting at 17 MPH towards the stop.

I myself am no stranger to this compulsion. Whenever I’m coasting below 25, I get this Jedi-esque sensory experience of the drivers behind me, fuming at the jerk in the blue car who’s taking his sweet time. I’ve witnessed people pass around me – in a race to beat me to the red light. I feel like I’m the crazy one for driving slowly and patiently and (as bonkers as it sounds) economically.

I hope that I’m just an “early adopter” to the new school of the slow—that more drivers will succumb to the you’ll-get-there-soon-enough mentality. But I’m lead to believe that we’ll all keep our lead-feet on the gas pedal. The impulse to get moving is just too great.