In today’s tight economy we need to save money in whatever way we can. With the cost at the gas pumps constantly rising, many folk have taken that old saying, made famous by all those Greyhound® commercials, “Take the bus and leave the driving to us,” to heart. But what about all of us that need to drive because there isn’t any public transportation where we live or those of us who have to use our vehicles for our jobs? How do we get better mileage without investing megabucks in one of those alternate fuel vehicles?
Much has been written about how to stretch your gas mileage with various driving techniques and strategies but I haven’t read much about how installing a GPS system in your cars and trucks will boost gas mileage. That’s really sad because a good GPS system can save the average driver as much as $200 a year at the gas pumps. When I purchased my first Tom Tom One ®™ about 18 months ago it was because I was tired of having to plot my daily routes using a road atlas, but I quickly discovered a multitude of other advantages to having a GPS system in all my cars and trucks.
Navteq, a company founded in Silicon Valley, California, in 1985 and now headquartered in Chicago, IL recently and is a global leader in GPS technology. Recently they conducted a study involving three types of drivers in Germany; drivers without GPS, drivers with GPS and drivers with GPS that received traffic data. The result came in showing that drivers with GPS systems drove shorter distances and spent less time driving. How can a GPS system do this for you?
· All GPS system offers you a choice of a minimum of two routes to tour destination-the fastest route and the shortest route. The fastest route and the shortest route aren’t always synonymous. The fastest route is often longer in miles but encompass superhighways and toll roads so the speed limits are higher which more than compensates for the greater mileage that you have to travel. The shortest route plotted by the GPS system often keeps you on secondary and tertiary roads where the speed limits are often under 30 miles per hour. You save on gas but spend a great deal more time driving.
· If you have ever tried to locate a specific house number on a dark country lane at night you how difficult a task that can be and how often you will drive right by is several times before spotting it. All that wasted driving spells wasted gas which equates to wasted money. House number can be just as easily missed on a city street in broad daylight if the traffic is heavy and the results is the same. Most GPS systems will give you both audible and visual indications of just how close you are getting to your final destination in plenty of time for you get in the right lane and prepare to stop.
· Most GPS systems will pinpoint the locations of the nearest gas stations, restaurants, hotels/motels, police stations, etc. so you will not waste time and gas searches for them in strange cities.
· A GPS system will save you money in traffic tickets as well because they can monitor your speed and let you know when you are exceeding the speed limits on most major highway systems.
With the cost of in-car navigation systems dropping at a rapid pace, there is no logical reason why anyone should go on driving without one.
