Lately I have been practicing driving slower than I normally would. It has been entertaining, meditative, and it makes my 40+ minute drive to work much more relaxing. I believe it is also helping me save gas, which is quite nice considering that gas in the Somerville, MA area is not above $3 a gallon.
I try to keep my RPMs below 2500. This was a challenge until I got used to not accelerating too fast. It became entertaining when I began to realize how upset people were getting driving behind me. I by no means enjoy upsetting people on purpose, but I just don’t understand why everyone has to be speeding everywhere; is it really that important for you to be getting to your destination 4 or 5 minutes earlier, I’m not so sure.
For myself driving so much slower, purposefully, has been really wonderful. I notice more things during my drive. Instead of concentrating on getting to where I am going more quickly I can be a bit more contemplative and think about how my day is going to be or how it went.
The simple fact that I am not rushing helps me relax. I can just hang back in the right lane and watch as everyone else rushes past me and think about my day, my wife, and contemplate how much gas I am saving.
Photo by helixblue
Check out the “driving slower” tag – there are now two entries on it, yours and mine, and they say more or less the same thing.