AFP: Oil prices hover near 110 dollars
Crap!
Archive for the 'Driving' Category
I've been chugging through almost impossible traffic for the last 2 days. I changed routes each day (like a true scientist) but had more or less the same result.
It takes about 1 hour in the morning and almost 1 1/2 hours in the evening to get home. Its just a waste of time and money. Think of all the petrol we can save if we could go at about 60 kmph straight home in about 15 minutes like it does on a holiday or around 4am.
And to top it all off I have to look forward to the weekend cars. Don't know what they are? Well those are the cars that sit at home all week and go out in the weekend. Its a good fuel saving strategy but more cars on the road doesn't help.
At this point I would happily pay a toll if there was a highway or expressway, but that's also wishful thinking in a dump like this.
Happy Weekend!
Update: I think part of the problem was the Highlevel road color lights in Nugegoda was out for the last 2 days, hope its fixed today.
You know all I want to do is write about technology. I don't enjoy writing rants. Its very difficult to separate what you like from what you have to deal with on a daily basis. I will try to get over this crap and write about tech again, I promise
Looks like my problem with coping with fuel hikes goes hand in hand with driving green. I found a few related articles on TreeHugger.
Proper Tire Pressure For Better Mileage
New Cars to Check Tire Pressure Automatically
Green Your Drive Without a Hybrid
1. Reduce your air conditioning
2. Change your filters at scheduled intervals
3. Check your tire pressure regularly
4. Use a fuel additive in each fill-up to increase engine performance
5. Get fuel injectors cleaned
Tony's Guide to Fuel saving seems to have a lot of useful information, thanks JL.
I got another Monday morning shocker as fuel prices were hiked up again. This is the 6th time this year according to my fuel log. Here are a few ideas on what you can do about it.
- The right tire pressure is a small thing but you might be wasting fuel on drag if your tires are under pressure.
- The quality of the fuel varies from shed to shed. If your drive is not smooth chances are there are impurities in the fuel. Change the shed.
- Check spark plugs and the fuel filter.
- Look into fuel and engine oil additives that claim to increase fuel efficiency. I've tried X1R which seemed to improve performance but no change in fuel efficiency.
- I've heard that nano tech fuel saver has some savings but no direct experience on it yet.
- Tinting helped me a lot by cutting down the air conditioning usage.
- Alloy wheels might help a bit but wider tires would counter any efficiency gained.
- A high pass air filter might help, then again keeping your current one clean would also help.
- Driving style has a lot to do with fuel economy. Accelerating and breaking too fast gulps down a lot of fuel.
Any more tips?
Every once in a while I feel a drag when driving. Most of the time it was tire pressure. The Zen is supposed to have something like 27 psi but when it goes down to even 25 I feel the drag. The problem is the pressure drops every 2 weeks or so.
Any advice than check the tire pressure every week?
I finally got out of Colombo after a long time. In fact it was the first time I went beyond Beruwela after the Tsunami. Looks like Chathuranga had more fun than I driving all over the place.
The last crazy road trip I remember was Colombo --> Kandy --> Bandarawela --> Kandy --> Anuradhapura --> Kandy --> Colombo in about 4 days. That was in the late 90's and in the final leg I remember coming down with fever.
Driving would have been easier with an extra half a liter of engine capacity and automatic gears. Then again the Zen is a city car so I was not expecting much. The cruising speed on 4th was about 60 and 5th about 80kmph so there was no way of getting a speeding ticket. But thanks for everyone for signaling me there were cops in front anyway.
Amaya Reef Hotel was average. Not much to complain or praise about. Oh by the way the Hikkaduwa reef is gone. That was my initial blatant observation. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it all looked pretty dead to me.
I'm seeing a kind of yellow fade technique happening on our roads. I see eager souls standing beside what used to be a yellow pedestrian crossing. The problem is I don't see it until I'm too close to stop.
I don't mind honoring a few faded crossings on my normal route, but I can't remember all of them. I'm sorry, if I can't see them; they don't exist.
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