Flossie Lou lives in Santa Cruz and drives to work in San Jose, a distance of 25.5 miles. She takes Highway 17, turns off on Highway 280, takes a turnoff to city streets and into the company parking lot. On a good day the trip takes 40 minutes. Her Co-Pilot tells her this trip uses 1.41 gallons; average MPG for the trip is 18.09 (not great for an economy car), and she sits motionless for over 10 minutes.Armed with this information, she explores an earlier turnoff. Her distance increases to 28.3 miles, but traveling time decreases to 34 minutes. Time sitting motionless decreases to 5 minutes because there are fewer stop lights. Fuel for the new trip is 1.21 gallons. Average MPG is now 23.39.
Flossie Lou is happy and motivated ... hunting out shorter, faster routes.