Relief from rising gas prices is possible, if you know the secrets

By MICHAEL S. ROSENWALD

Simply driving a little slower on the highway can improve your gas mileage.

WASHINGTON — Jason Toews is the co-founder of GasBuddy.com, which helps people find cheap gas (if such a product actually exists). This is Memorial Day weekend, the official start of the summer driving season, when drivers traditionally pay closer attention to gas prices.

This should be Toews’ moment, his 15 minutes of fame, his day in the sun, his flash in the pan — step right up and choose your cliche.

But with gas prices soaring, now topping $4 a gallon, it turns out that every day has become Toews’ moment.

“It will come up in virtually every conversation when people talk to me,” he said. “It does get tiring if I am trying to enjoy a meal. But it’s a subject that everyone is talking about. And gas prices are only going to go higher.”

He cites statistics as if he were reading them off the back of a baseball card. When The Washington Post spoke to him Thursday, he noted that the average price per gallon had gone up 3.5 cents — in 15 hours. “Thursday seems to be a pretty popular day to raise prices,” Toews said, even when it’s not Memorial Day weekend. He’s such a gas man that he knows the days when prices go up. (Sunday and Wednesday are cheaper.)

More stats for the weary: The national average has gone from $3.20 a gallon to $3.80 in the same period, according to the American Automobile Association.

The automotive Web site found that in testing on an SUV, putting a suitcase and cooler on the roof — while driving at 65 mph — dropped fuel economy from 27.2 mpg to 21.6 mpg. Here’s why: Adding stuff on the roof increases the amount of car that has to fight through the wind, creating drag.

As Edmunds.com explained, “Aerodynamic drag increases in proportion to the square of speed, so doubling speed from 40 to 80 mph results in a quadrupling — four times more — of drag.”

So how do you find cheap gas? The quickest way to compare gas prices is using the Internet. There’s GasBuddy.com. There’s Gaspricewatch.com. Mapquest and Google have interactive maps that allow drivers to see gas prices along their travel routes.

You can even get updated information on your phone or PDA. Click over to Gasbuddytogo.com on your Web-enabled phone. Or you can text message or e-mail gas@gasbuddy.com with the City/State or Zip/Postal Code as the body of the message.

Lastly, slowing down will take a little more time (a little), but it will save fuel. OnAAA says: “Gas mileage decreases rapidly at speeds above 60 mph. Each 5 mph you drive over 60 mph is like paying an additional $0.15 per gallon of gas.