There are so many simple and easy things you can do to improve your gas mileage.  One of those simple things is to change your parking habits.        

Here is the normal scenario when pulling into a parking lot. You pull into the lot and immediately head for the row of parking spaces closest to the entrance to the mall or the store to which you are heading.  Of course, since everyone does the same thing, there are not any parking spaces available near the entrance.

Now you do one of two things, you either sit and wait for a few minutes to see if anyone will be pulling out of spaces near the entrance, or you drive up and down the closest rows to see if you can find a spot that is still fairly close to the entrance.

Both of these behaviors will cost you gas mileage and will cost you money.  When you sit and wait to see if anyone will vacate a space you are running your engine but not moving. You are getting zero miles per gallon when you are sitting and idling like that.

When you slowly cruise up and down the parking rows near the entrance you are burning gas.  When you are moving slowly you are getting very poor gas mileage.  As you slow down and stop at spaces that might open up, or if you stop behind another car that is stopped, now you are idling and getting zero miles per gallon. 

If you spend just 60 seconds in any given day waiting for or cruising for a parking space, think how much gas you will use in a year. For a quick calculation, if we assume an average month of 30 days and you are wasting gas for 60 seconds or one minute each day that means that you would be burning gas for 30 minutes each month.

At 30 minutes per month, you would be unnecessarily burning gas the equivalent of 6 hours per year.  Now, would you ever consider leaving your car sit and idle in your driveway for six hours burning gas?  Of course not.  But that is exactly what you are doing with your current parking habits.

What is the solution to all of this wasted gas?  How can you improve gas mileage by changing parking habits? Very simple, park far away from the store or mall entrance.  The farther from the entrance you go the more empty parking spaces there are.  Chances are that if you, immediately upon entering the parking lot, go to the rows far from the entrance, you will find a place to park right away. 

By parking far away, you save all the gas you would have burned waiting and looking for a close in parking space. Not only will you improve gas mileage and save money but you will get a little extra exercise by walking the extra distance to the store entrance.  It’s a win for your pocket book and a win for your body.