Divvy My Ride Blog

Prices of gas in Northern California have already hit an wallet draining $4.14/gal. which means that my 12 mile daily commute to work already costs me $2.75 each day!

That is why I have pledged to bike to work at least once a week and probably more when the rains stops. The bike ride to my workplace  is a roughly 30minutes (including the changeover) vs. the car commute of ~20minutes, so it is actually not that bad a deal. Plus the added benefit of free exercise. With that in mind I have also been building my biking capabilities (who knows my commute could be 20miles each way on day :D ) and recently  I hit a personal record in terms of distance 37.5miles (60km)! here are  the details of that epic bike ride.

The Epic Bike ride

ps: by the way runkeeper and runtastic pro (I like this better) are both really great apps for iphone to track physical activities.

From the Boston Globe a great article on Myths and Facts about gas saving

Read more: http://www.boston.com/business/personalfinance/gallery/fueleconomymyths/

Gas-saving tips – fact or fiction?

Gas prices got you down?

At roughly $4 a gallon, many people are desperately trying to squeeze more miles out of each drop. The best ways are usually the most obvious: reduce your load, resist the urge to drive aggressively, and cut the number of trips you make, for starters. However, there are some unusual tips that might surprise you.

Short quiz, from the Boston Globe : find out which tips are true energy savers and which are merely gas station myths.

fill up when it’s cool

The claim: During warm weather, it’s best to refuel in the early morning or late evening, when temperatures have dipped, because gas will be denser. The denser the gas, the better your fuel mileage.
False. Both Consumer Reports and Popular Mechanics have ruled this rumor false. Modern pumps are temperature-compensated to regulate fuel density, according to Popular Mechanics. Even if they weren’t, gas temperatures typically remain stable all day, Consumer Reports writes, rendering the advantage of going out of your way to pump at a certain time negligible.

Air conditioning vs. open windows

The scenario: It’s the dead of summer, and you’re driving on the highway. With gas prices north of $4, however, you choose not to run the air conditioning because of the strain it will place on your gas tank. Driving with the windows open will help you conserve gas.
False. In this scenario, this line of logic would be false. There would be no savings from turning off the air conditioning because opening the windows would create drag, reducing the car’s normal gas mileage. Consumer Reports tested the theory while driving a Toyota Camry at 65 miles per hour, and found that choosing air or windows didn’t make a justifiable difference. That’s not to say that air conditioning is always the best option. The Department of Energy’s website suggests that turning off the air conditioner may improve fuel economy when driving at speeds under 40 mph.

to idle, or not

The claim: If you need to run into your house to grab something, or if you’re sitting in traffic for even a minute, it’s best to turn off your car. It’s more fuel efficient to restart the car than to leave the engine idling.
True. This one is true. Some might believe that restarting the car’s engine wastes more fuel than letting it run, but modern fuel-injection technology allows already-warm engines to restart without burning gas, according to Popular Mechanics. Idling, however, can waste fuel.

Avoid filling up when you see a fuel truck

The claim: If you pull up to a gas station that is receiving a fuel delivery, don’t use the pumps. The delivery stirs up sediment in the station’s tank that could be pumped into your tank. Dirty fuel will hurt your gas mileage.
False. While a fuel delivery may stir up sediment that gathers in a station tank, both the gas station and the car have filters that will prevent sand or dirt from affecting your car’s performance.

It’s somewhat of a hold over fear dating back to when gas tanks were made of metal rather than fiberglass, said John Paul, AAA’s Car Doctor, in an interview. Stations regularly test their fuel supply for quality, he said.
“If you’re on ‘E,’ and the low fuel light’s on, and the only station around is the one with the tanker, go, and get the gas,” Paul said.

Best day of the week

The claim: Tuesday — or maybe you’ve heard Wednesday? — is the best day of the week to purchase gas because prices level midweek.
False. If this were true wouldn’t everyone be doing it? There is no best day of the week to make a pit stop at the pump, or predict when prices will dip.There are several websites, locally our own guide to gas prices in your area, and nationally, GasBuddy.com and AAA’s Fuel Price Finder — that allow you to canvass your town’s stations without driving around in search of the best deal.

Higher the grade of gas, better the fuel economy

The claim: Your car manual recommends regular gasoline, but buying premium gas will get you better gas mileage because of its higher quality.
False. While premium grade is a higher-quality gas, that doesn’t mean your car necessarily needs it, according to Consumer Reports. Most cars are designed to run on regular gas, and many cars that recommend premium can also use regular because modern sensor systems automatically adjust to prevent engine knocking, a pinging noise caused by premature fuel ignition. Make sure you read your vehicle’s manual before making any changes to the products you use.

Over-inflate your tires

The claim: Filling under-inflated tires to their recommended pressure is a proven way to improve fuel economy. Conventional wisdom would follow that filling the tires even further, to the maximum on the tires’ pressure range, will only improve your gas mileage.

False. Inflating your tires beyond the recommended level will reduce the portion of the tire in contact with the road and the resistance between the tires and the road, but over-inflating them can make for a rocky ride. Popular Mechanics has also road tested this theory and concluded that the gas mileage doesn’t improve.The difference occurs when under-inflated tires are pumped to proper levels. In fact, the Department of Energy estimates that this simple fill up can improve your gas mileage by 3.3 percent.

Pump slowly

The claim: You will get more gas for your money if you set the nozzle to the slowest setting while you pump. More gas, and less air and vapors, will pass through the hose and into your tank.

False. There’s no truth to this claim, according to John Paul, AAA’s Car Doctor. Gas station systems are designed so that little air or fumes will take the place of the gas for which you’re paying dearly. There is one perk to pumping slowly, according to Paul. “What that will do, the end result is you will get a fuller tank, but you’re still paying for it.”

tailgate trick?

The claim: Driving with the tailgate of your truck down will make the truck more aerodynamic, which will help fuel economy.

False. The logic behind the argument is sound, but this is one theory that’s been tested — and debunked — by multiple car experts, including the Discovery Channel sleuths on the show MythBusters. According to Episode 43 of the program, which first aired in 2005, driving with the tailgate down reduces the number of miles you’ll get for your money

Use your overdrive to improve your fuel economy.

The claim: You can optimize your fuel economy on the highway by putting your car into overdrive, typically the transmission’s highest gear. This will allow your engine to run at a lower level of revolutions per minute, and use less energy.

True. According to the Department of Energy, when overdrive gearing is used, “your car’s engine speed goes down. This saves gas and reduces engine wear.”

A dirty air filter will cost you

The claim: If your air filter is dirty, your engine will receive less air, but burn the same amount of fuel, throwing off the car’s air/fuel ratio and making the vehicle more inefficient.

False. While this was once true, modern engine technology now compensates for the problems a dirty air filter would create. Both Consumer Reports and Popular Mechanics agree that today’s engines will inject exactly as much fuel as the engine needs, and will adjust to changes in the amount of air being received. However, regular car tuneups can’t hurt.

Robin Chase is the founder of Zipcar. Her vision for the way we would commute and travel in the coming years is revolutionary, but very plausible. She is working on a carpool site http://www.goloco.org, with a theme very similar to what we are trying to achieve at DivvymyRide.com (i.e. increase carpooling) but her approach is slightly different. GoLoCo.com (or should I say Robin) believes that the social community structure is enough to motivate a regular commuter to change his habits and switch over to carpooling locally. The web is good enough to bring people together on a superficial level, (checking blogs, leaving feedback or testimonials etc etc), but it is very hard to convince a person to share a car ride with someone person they got introduced on the web.

Any way listen to this great talk by her.

mayank

Great Article from http://hotelscheap.org/articles/best-travel-sites.html

I have copied some info here.

1) SideStep – Once upon a time, Sidestep was a PC-only downloadable app that trawled the web for the best airfares. It was worth the custom application annoyance because it really did find the best deals. Today, Sidestep.com is a sleek, ultra-customizable travel search engine that can index results by dozens of variables. Want to search a few nearby airports, but not all? Or leave in the late afternoon and return in the morning? You can even specify whether you want to sort times by takeoff time or by arrival time. Sidestep auto-sorts and live updates results with the click of a checkbox. In our tests today versus Expedia, Orbitz and Travelocity, Sidestep still finds the best fares out there. Incidentally, writers at CNN.com, VroomVroomVroom’s Geek Travel Guide and Travel + Leisure all agree with us.

2) Google Maps – Aside from its tie-ins to the entire Google application suite and its ever-increasing map, satellite and street view coverage, the Google Maps/Google Earth network is so thorough that it’s led to domestic lawsuits and censorship by foreign militaries. Recently the site has added click-and-drag route adjustments and terrain views of maps—avoid winding mountain roads—and Google is adding features rapidly. You can download Google Maps for your web-enabled phone for free; carrier usage fees still apply.

3) Farecast – Farecast.com predicts the best dates to buy airfares based on past price trends, but has limited national coverage, and all of its data is U.S. only. In our test of a Labor Day weekend trip from Los Angeles to Des Moines, no predictions were offered, but it recommended to go ahead and buy tickets now (April) for LAX to Boston’s Logan airport for the same dates. Also, the site found some super cheap fares for both trips.

4) SeatGuru – Seatguru.com offers seating charts for more than 300 different aircraft on 45 airlines. If you’re bigger than the average person, hate crying babies, need to have the aisle seat or hate sitting near the wings since you’re always convinced they’re going to fall off, this is your go-to site.

5) Kayak – Travel + Leisure magazine calls Kayak.com the top site overall for booking hotels. Book at more hotels around the world (159,000) than even Hotels.com (70,000) with Kayak’s simple, sleek interface. Some like Kayak for airfares too, but we got the best rates with Sidestep—see #1.

6) Traffic.com – Traffic.com covers 51 metropolitan (i.e. traffic-prone) areas across the U.S. with 0 to 10 jam ratings on local trouble spots. Get warnings about traffic-creating events like concerts, sporting events and natural disasters and sign up for custom SMS, email or cell phone call alerts for traffic flare-ups. There’s also a mobile version.

7) GasBuddy.com – GasBuddy.com finds the best local gas prices in all 50 U.S. states and Canada. Select your state or province, then major metropolitan area, then city, and view a chart of user-reported prices from high to low. Since the prices are user-reported, there’s less data for sparsely populated areas, but with gas prices on the rise, the site has been gaining popularity. The site’s cluttered interface could be cleaned up a bit, but it’s serviceable.

8) Airport Discount Parking – AirportDiscountParking.com’s name says it all. No more circling the lot and hedging your bets. Make reservations—often at a discount over on-site prices—and print coupons to wield at the parking booth.

9-11) Parking Lot Maps – One of the greatest variables in traveling to a new spot is the parking. Will it be more like San Francisco, with $40 a day structures, or like the Midwest, with wide, bare boulevards? Three sites aim at easing the parking pain by mapping parking lots and structures—SpotScout (U.S.), Findacarpark (Australia), and Parkatmyhouse (the U.K.).

12) Trip Advisor – Scout out the best lodgings with user reviews at TripAdvisor.com. Popular properties can attract dozens of review, and it takes some time to learn to distinguish the cranky reviewers who can’t be pleased by anything from the genuinely helpful. Nonetheless, it’s a huge and active user community with plenty to share. (Check out some of the funniest, most negative hotel stays ever here.)

13) Vroom Vroom Vroom – Vroomvroomvroom.com compares car rental prices from major agencies in the U.S., Europe, the U.K., Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Incidentally, Kiplinger.com recommends that Americans rent from major American companies when overseas—it seems to run more smoothly for everyone, they say.

14) Avoid Airport Delays – The recent grounding of planes for wiring inspections only highlights the growing problem of flight delays. Fight the power with Avoiddelays.com, a site from the National Air Traffic Controllers Association aimed at reporting delayed flights and shaming the most frequently offending airports and airlines. Avoiddelays is powered by FlightStats.com, which offers alerts for delayed flights at selected American airports.

15) Last Minute Hotel Reservations - For a spur of the moment getaway, laterooms.com lists last minute deals at hotels and resorts around the world. Availability varies wildly, but hey, you should have thought of that before you put your planning off to the last minute. For a posh whirlwind getaway, also check LuxuryLink.com—some LuxuryLink users have reported savings of up to 70 percent, according to Kiplinger.

16) Track Mileage Expenses – Despite its rather plain-wrap website, BizMileTracker is a major-league, IRS-approved way to quickly compute miles traveled for business. They say they’ve worked with Canon and Ask.com, among others. Currently, they’re offering free memberships but they usually charge $29. If you drive a lot, you’ll save far more than the $29 membership fee in tax deductions.

17) Save on Currency Exchange – Skip the chintzy, touristy currency exchange kiosks that rip you off—Thomas Cook, are you listening? XE.com is an industrial-strength foreign currency conversion rate site. If you travel with a web-enabled device and are scrupulous about getting the best rates, check XE.com frequently. Also check out the New York Times’s advice on saving when exchanging.

18) Travel Light – Written and illustrated like a folksy textbook with tips for the “compleat traveler,” Onebag.com advertises itself as “the art and science of traveling light.” Although Australia-based, the site aims at an international audience with its universal advice.

19) Create Holiday Checklists – Create customized packing lists at British “holiday checklist service” Dontforgetyourtoothbrush.com. Sign up for custom reminder texts—“Did you water the azealas?”—and print and save packing lists customized by your destination and type of trip. Apparently, it works—the site earned the #7 spot on CNN International’s Top Websites of 2007.

20-22) Make Your Phone a GPS Device – Turn your PDA phone into a GPS device with Telenav.com or 3dTracking.net. No longer restricted to the Nextel network, Telenav charges a $9.99 monthly fee (last we checked) for turn-by-turn navigation on a smartphone screen. 3dtracking offers software that monitors the movements of a GPS-enabled phone—perfect for parents keeping an eye on wandering kids. The first device software install is free; adding additional phones requires a fee. Nextel or Boost Mobile users can also check out Accutracking.com.

23) Make the Most of Your Miles – Got frequent flyer miles with multiple airlines or programs, but not enough to actually take a trip? WebFlyer.com aims to translate, transfer or rearrange those useless points into something usable. The site also boasts “the world’s most popular message board for frequent flyers.”

24) Find a Cheap Cruise – Looking to sail away? At CruiseCompete, travel agents vie for cruise package sales in a LendingTree-style setup that has earned plenty of accolades. Both experienced and newbie cruisers can commune on Cruisemates.com, the cruise lifestyle central, or at Cruisecritic.com, which offers a friendly interface. Neither Cruisecritic or Cruisemates is a booking site, but both sites do link to bargain berths around the web.

25) Find a Hostel – If you’re finally ready to bum across Europe—or across the world—reserve cheapie lodgings at Hostelbook.com. Search and book over 9,000 hostels at the site, or use the Facebook Hostels application powered by Hostelbook. Whether you’re bound for sketchy cots or cushy twin bunks, you’re on your way to cheap digs.

If every commuter car in the U.S. carried just one more person, we’d save 600,000 gallons of gas and 12 million pounds of CO2 every day.
Author: letsgreenthiscity

And how did we forget that carpooling saves you parking and toll money too !!

The high toll at the San Francisco Bay Bridge has spawned a neat casual carpool community. As expected there are common rules of etiquettes to follow:

“Rules” and Etiquette

Casual car pools are not “run” by any organization or authority. They have worked well for over 20 years based on a few simple rules that have evolved among drivers and passengers.

Regular car pools on the Bay Bridge and I-80 are required to have three or more people in a car. An exception is made for cars and trucks that have only two seats. Such vehicles may use the car pool lanes when there are two people in the vehicle. (Note: most pick-ups do not count as two-seat vehicles. The number of seats/seat-belts the vehicle was manufactured with – including jump seats – is the official “count.”)

There is no exchange of money involved. It’s a mutual benefit operation: drivers save time and a toll; riders enable the drivers to do that.

People are usually careful to form as many car pools as possible. This means no more than three people per car. In the afternoon in San Francisco, however, if there is still a substantial line of passengers after 6 pm, drivers are urged to take as many people as their vehicles can hold so as many passengers as possible can get rides home.

People are quite mindful of the “first-come, first-served” aspect of the lines. Avoid the ire of your fellow commuters: don’t “line-jump.”

On the other hand, riders and drivers are free to wait for another driver/rider. For example, a woman may not want to get into a two-seat car with a male driver, or a woman driver may prefer to wait for a female rider. As far as we’ve seen, such choices are respected without comment or disapproval.

Food. Passengers should assume that food and drink are not allowed in driver’s cars.

Music. Drivers should be considerate of passengers when listening to music, news or talk radio. Rear speakers and subwoofers produce much more sound than side door speakers, so please keep your volume in check.

Drive cautiously. Drivers are encouraged to drive extra cautiously when commuting with passengers, particularly when it comes to lane changes to and from the diamond lane, and also with regard to cell-phone use (especially without a hands-free set). There have been more than a few accidents involving casual carpool vehicles. Passengers notice and even gossip about the wild drivers. This may cost you time waiting in line if passengers skip your vehicle.

Please be mindful of business and residential neighbors. Drivers should avoid blocking driveways and side streets while waiting for passengers. Never stop in a bus zone. The fine is now more than $250!

As far as anyone seems to know, over the history of East Bay casual carpooling, there have been no untoward incidents. The “three-per-car” requirement has helped. A little caution and common sense also have helped. Passengers can always decline a ride. For example, female passengers have been known to decline rides in two-seat cars. They simply let another passenger go first, and wait for a larger vehicle.

Talking. Drivers generally should be the ones to initiate any conversation. Passengers should keep in mind that some drivers need or prefer to keep their minds focused on the road rather than chat.

Passengers are encouraged to be considerate of other passengers who might have tall or large bodies which more comfortably fit in front seats than back.

In the afternoon, if you are a passenger in a vehicle which crosses a toll bridge after 7 pm, you are urged to offer enough to cover more than your share of the toll (for example, $2 per passenger instead of $1 in a 3-person carpool). This will encourage drivers to continue picking up passengers later into the evening, plus it’s still a great deal for the passenger.

In the morning, drivers are encouraged to offer an approximate final destination in San Francisco (for example, Civic Center, South of Market, Financial District or cross streets). Passengers greatly appreciate riding for a few extra blocks if your commute routes partially overlap. You might even meet a permanent carpool passenger!

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Cool Isn’t it?

Car Talk is one of the best radio shows around. Why not learn from it?

read these fuel saving tip from the professionals.

Simple Step No. 1: Stop driving like a jerk
Simple Step No. 2: Slow down
more at

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18615572/