GAS TANK CHICKEN

I find myself playing this game more often than I would have thought. I commute 5 days a week. 80 miles round trip. My car gets 22-25mpg. It's a Subaru, what do you want? The tank holds about 16g when totally empty. Some basic math tells us that we can get 352-400 miles on a tank. That is if we run this little tank down to EMPTY. I don't usually do that. However I do let the "fill up yer tank NOW" light come on when I leave work and start that 40 mile drive home. Yesterday when I started I was quite confident that I would make it home. Traffic does funny things to your confidence in the gas tank, such as you KNOW that you have about 30miles left in the tank when the light comes on. When you're driving on the freeway. At 65mph. However crawling up 19th ave in SF shifting between 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, that story begins to change. Every little change in speed, gear shift causes a little bit more gas to be consumed. Your confidence begins to get about as thin as the layer of gasonline on the bottom of you tank. How think is that layer? Just how much do I have left? Was that an engine sputter? Okay, now I'm on the Golden Gate, I have to at least make it up the Waldon Grade, then I can get it into neutral. I didn't run out. But she did take 15.5g this morning. Another round of gas tank chicken won. Just how far can your car go? Mine, apparently goes just far enough.