Turn right to save gasoline

[Desertdog]

Interesting concept.  I do prefer not to make left turns.

Turn right to save gasoline
http://kvoa.com/Global/story.asp?S=5853025

Now a story that could point you in a whole new direction!

Turning right... to save gas.

UPS workers swear by the "right-turn-only method" for its delivery drivers.

UPS began the right-turn-only delivery system in Tucson, about 3 years ago.

Managers say that in that time, they've reduced mileage by five percent, optimizing the routes.

During the busy holiday season, more than 200 drivers work out of the main Tucson UPS station each day.

This holiday season, UPS drivers look more like elves, trying to deliver your gifts on time.

One of the ways they save time....

"You'll end up going left, burning fuel and you're sitting there waiting."

Jai Lehmann is the Operation Manager for the UPS Extended Centers of Southern Arizona. She says her drivers avoid taking left turns whenever possible.     

UPS says trying to only turn right not only saves time and gasoline, it also reduces the time drivers spend in their cars.

"We've reduced our miles by quite a bit," says Lehmann.

News 4 wanted to know if the right-turn-only method really works. We took our news car around town, starting at the Park Place Mall.

We then headed to the Tucson Mall. Our plan was to take as few left turns as possible.

Taking only one left to get out of the Park Place Mall, we took Broadway Boulevard to Granada Avenue in Downtown and up to Oracle Road, turning right into the Tucson Mall.

It took our News 4 crew 29 minutes to get from the Park Place Mall to the Tucson Mall, taking just one left turn.

For our second test, we looked at how long it took to get back to the Park Place Mall from the Tucson Mall, this time taking left and right turns.

How'd we do? Turns out it took us the exact same time!

However, our crew turned left more often and we had to sit with our car idling, waiting for at least three left turn arrows to change.

The moral of the story?

Lehmann says, "Going left if going out of your way, which can be miles and miles and miles."

UPS says in the month of February alone the "right turn" system saved the company about a million miles nationwide.

[Perd Hapley]

Where's the news?  Unless one lives in a rural area, avoiding left turns is a way of life.  Isn't it? 

[Declaration Day]

Making only right turns saves gas AND time?

Quick!  Somebody call NASCAR!

[brimic]

Quick!  Somebody call NASCAR!

lol!

When I used to deliver pizzas for dominos, we found that cutting through parking lots and gas stations to  make a right turn while the light is red also saved gas and time.

[Oleg Volk]

...and is illegal in some states 

[Fly320s]

That's nothing.

My neighborhood has a UPS bike delivery guy.  He rides around on a bike in his brown uniform towing a trailer.  Yes, really.

[zahc]

When I used to deliver pizzas for dominos, we found that cutting through parking lots and gas stations to  make a right turn while the light is red also saved gas and time.

It works even better for left turns.

[Tallpine]

Where's the news?  Unless one lives in a rural area, avoiding left turns is a way of life.  Isn't it? 

I've been doing that for decades.  I plan my trips to town to make a clockwise circle if possible, taking into account businesses that are located on the right hand side of the street.  Mostly because I hate city traffic and left turns are more accident prone.

Of course I do live in a rural area, so out here I just drive on whichever side of the road I want and make turns whenever and however.  Don't use turn signals either - it's nobody's business where I'm going and/or you should know by now that that is my drive and I'm going to turn there. 

[Cosmoline]

There are long stretches of the Parks Highway up here where turning left is usually lethal.  I avoid it unless there's a good turn lane with a signal light, AND the signal light is green.  But then again I've been to cities that are layed out so you must turn left and left again to get into shopping malls and the like.