Good Magazine has lots of great posts on transportation, technology and cities. They also have a sweet domain name: http://good.is

Their post on why gallons per mile (as opposed to miles per gallon) is a more effective way to discuss fuel efficiency in automobiles is very interesting. Its basic math, but I never heard this mentioned at all when cash for clunkers was being discussed.

most people assumed that improving a car’s miles per gallon from 25 mpg to 50 mpg would save more gas over 10,000 miles than an improvement from 10 mpg to 20 mpg. But when you do the math, the latter saves more than twice as much

The chart sums it up

This helps us understand that pulling cars out of the teens [in terms of miles per gallon] is so much more valuable than pushing an efficient car even higher. That only becomes clear when you start thinking about gallons per mile. That tiny increase from 10 mpg to 11 mpg saves essentially the same one gallon of gas every 100 miles as does increasing 33 mpg to 50 mpg.

Are there any advantages to using miles per gallon other than its what we’re used to?