At These Prices, Drive Less

If you can't or won't reduce your gasoline consumption, then at least heed the advice of auto experts -- slow your roll. In other words, stop flooring the gas pedal.

Edmunds.com, the auto consumer site, found that you can save quite a bit of money by braking easy. If you slowed your 0-to-60 time down to 20 seconds from a normal city driving pace of 10 seconds to 15 seconds, you'll feel the savings immediately, according to Edmunds. You could see an improvement in the number of miles you get to the gallon by as much as 35 percent.

Here are some other ways to save on gas:

· Save yourself some money and time riding around looking for the cheapest gas by going to http://www.gaspricewatch.com/ to compare prices in your area. You can search for the best gas deals by your Zip code, street, city or state. You can even sort prices by the grade of gasoline.

· Stop speeding. The faster you drive, the more gas you use. Each 5 mph over 60 is equivalent to paying an extra 15 cents per gallon for gas, according to the Alliance to Save Energy.

· Share a ride. There is a growing trend called car-sharing. It's a concept that could work for a lot of consumers, saving them thousands of dollars each year. Steve Case, the co-founder of America Online, believes this will take off. His Washington-based investment firm, Revolution LLC, acquired the controlling interest in Flexcar, one of the pioneer companies in car-sharing. Even Lee Iacocca is catching a ride on this trend. He will become a senior adviser, investor and director of Flexcar.

Car-sharing is like time-sharing. But instead of buying a week's use of a vacation condominium, you share a car with other members. Unlike a time-share, you don't have ownership rights but you do avoid insurance, parking, cleaning and maintenance costs that come with owning a car. With Flexcar, members reserve a vehicle over the Internet or phone for rates that range from $7 to $10 an hour and $35 to $90 per day. Membership costs $40 a year.

Here's one of the best parts of car-sharing: The fee includes the cost of gas.

For more information on Flexcar, which operates 450 cars in more than 30 cities, go to http://www.flexcar.com/ . Also check out Zipcar at http://www.zipcar.com/ , another major car-sharing company that has 700 vehicles in 21 cities. In July, Zipcar secured $10 million in funding to expand its service.

Look, folks, the point of this exercise is to get you to become proactive about consuming less gas. Goodness knows, griping about prices at the pump isn't working.

· On the air:

Join Michelle Singletary at 7:10 p.m. Wednesday on "Insight" with Yakenda McGahee on WHUR, 96.3 FM.

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· By e-mail:singletarym@washpost.com.

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