Rain Man
06-23-2006, 05:30 PM
I had a business trip up in the mountains for the past day or so, and came back to town today. At the top of the Eisenhower Tunnel, right at the Continental Divide point at 11,158 feet, I reset my gas mileage computer and then tracked it all the way to Denver.
Miles 0 through 10. I averaged 76.6 miles per gallon. (At one point, I was up over 83 miles per gallon.)
Miles 10 through 20. I averaged 37.4 miles per gallon due to a long level area. My cumulative gas mileage through 20 miles was 57.0 miles per gallon.
Miles 20 through 30. I averaged 27.6 miles per gallon in this section, which included a few uphill/downhill areas, and some idiot in a big utility truck made me tap my brakes at one point. My cumulative gas mileage through 30 miles was 47.2 miles per gallon.
Miles 30 through 40. This area starts heading downhill again at a shallow to moderate grade, so my mileage in this stretch was 36.4, bringing my cumulative mileage through 40 miles to 44.5 miles per gallon.
Miles 40 through 50. This area gets steeper as you approach Denver, so my mileage went back up to 43.5 in this stretch, bringing my cumulative mileage to 44.3 miles per gallon.
Miles 50 through 56. This put me back in town and all the way into my garage. I was plagued by 2 missed stop lights. My mileage in this stretch was 23.6, bringing my total for the 56 mile segment to 42.1 miles per gallon.
This shows me that if we placed large mountains in all of our major metro areas, our demand for gasoline could decline by almost 50 percent as long as people were careful to drive only downhill. Uphill is a bad strategy, as I checked on the last 1,500 feet of elevation going up to the Tunnel (maybe 10 miles in length), and I was at 21.7 miles per gallon in that stretch.
I was quite impressed to average 76.6 mpg for a ten-mile stretch.
Miles 0 through 10. I averaged 76.6 miles per gallon. (At one point, I was up over 83 miles per gallon.)
Miles 10 through 20. I averaged 37.4 miles per gallon due to a long level area. My cumulative gas mileage through 20 miles was 57.0 miles per gallon.
Miles 20 through 30. I averaged 27.6 miles per gallon in this section, which included a few uphill/downhill areas, and some idiot in a big utility truck made me tap my brakes at one point. My cumulative gas mileage through 30 miles was 47.2 miles per gallon.
Miles 30 through 40. This area starts heading downhill again at a shallow to moderate grade, so my mileage in this stretch was 36.4, bringing my cumulative mileage through 40 miles to 44.5 miles per gallon.
Miles 40 through 50. This area gets steeper as you approach Denver, so my mileage went back up to 43.5 in this stretch, bringing my cumulative mileage to 44.3 miles per gallon.
Miles 50 through 56. This put me back in town and all the way into my garage. I was plagued by 2 missed stop lights. My mileage in this stretch was 23.6, bringing my total for the 56 mile segment to 42.1 miles per gallon.
This shows me that if we placed large mountains in all of our major metro areas, our demand for gasoline could decline by almost 50 percent as long as people were careful to drive only downhill. Uphill is a bad strategy, as I checked on the last 1,500 feet of elevation going up to the Tunnel (maybe 10 miles in length), and I was at 21.7 miles per gallon in that stretch.
I was quite impressed to average 76.6 mpg for a ten-mile stretch.