Do you move your foot from gas to brake to gas to brake while you drive? If so, each switch costs you money! Jackrabbit starts and hard brake stops reduce travel time by only about 4 percent -- that's only 75 seconds on a 30-minute trip.

You can increase your gas milage up to 25% simply by changing your driving habits. It does mean driving like your grandmother, but if you use these tips you'll put money in your pocket AND reduce our need for Middle Eastern oil imports by half (Mother Jones ). Not to mention decreasing global warming!

I've become very conscious of my driving habits, and as a result see all the other cars wasting tons of gas! Braking, accelerating, and idling are all unnecessary wastes of gas.

1) Try to maintain one speed. Traffic lights are timed so that if you go the speed limit, you'll hit a string of greens. Instead of going  fast and then having to slow down when you come up on the car behind you, accelerate enough to get going and maintain that speed. You'll find you'll rarely speed up and slow down, even as all the other cars do around you.
2) If the traffic light ahead of you is red (or has been green for awhile), take your foot off the gas and coast to the light. Either you'll arrive just in time for the light to turn green again without braking at all, or you'll only have to sit at the light for a few seconds.
3) In a parking lot, find a spot at the highest elevation so you can roll out later. Even better, find a spot without a car or barrier in front of you so that you can just roll forward to leave - backing out, braking, and going forward again use gas. If you have to park a few rows further to get a spot without being nose-to-nose, it's worth it - the extra walk will do you good too!
4) We throw gas away when we accelerate fast, turn on the air conditioning, leave heavy stuff in the trunk, drive with a roof rack, don't change the oil, underinflate our tires, roll down the windows, and when we speed.