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This is a positive message for those who would like to do our country a favor by conserving gasoline, while at the same time spending fewer dollars on a tank full of gas.

Last week, my wife and I drove down to Miami Beach for the graduation of one of our grandsons. I noticed that there were fewer trucks barreling up behind me, tailgating me to the point where I had to change lanes. Apparently, the truckers have gotten the message that speeding increases their fuel bills significantly.

I decided to do an experiment myself. I have a 2000 model six-cylinder Oldsmobile Aurora, one of the heavier Oldsmobiles. They stopped making them in 2000 or 2001. It has both an instant and average miles per gallon display, so I can tell exactly how much gasoline I am using at various speeds. On many previous highway trips, when I cruised about 72 miles an hour (yes, I know, two miles over the speed limit), I got an average 28 miles per gallon on the highway.

Last week, going down to Miami, I put the cruise control on 69 miles per hour, and stuck to it religiously. I never exceeded 69. My average miles per gallon was 30 point 3. Coming back, I set the cruise control on 65 miles per hour, and drove mostly in the right hand lane, letting everyone pass me at will. My average miles per gallon was 31 point seven.

Translating this to percentages, driving about 3 miles an hour slower going down to Miami gave me an 8 per cent better gas mileage than I had received on previous trips. Reducing my speed by another 4 miles an hour coming back, to 65, gave me a 13 per cent savings in gas over what I had gotten going 72 miles an hour. The trip going down took me 18 minutes longer than usual, but I used one gallon less of gasoline, for a four dollar savings. The trip coming back took me 42 minutes longer, but I saved six dollars in gasoline.

And I had a much safer trip. I let all the other cars dodge me. I did no dodging at all.

In the short run, all we can do to reduce our gasoline costs is conserve – drive slower, and even in cities avoid quick accelerations, which drain the gasoline in our tanks.

In a perfect world, we would have a Congress and a President who would get the message and reduce highway speed limits. But this is not a perfect world, and the people who serve in Congress have limited foresight or leadership ability. Otherwise, they would have done something about our dependency on foreign oil long ago. So it is really up to us individually to conserve gasoline by driving slower and more sensibly.

This is Radio Ralph with a comment at midweek for AM850.