Racing to work, to pick up your children from school, or go from one errand to the next not only wastes money and sends harmful emissions into the air, it barely saves you time, new research says. It is something to think about as gas prices stay elevated throughout the summer months and add pain to day-to-day driving and seasonal road tripping. Instead, abiding by posted speed limits can save U.S. drivers millions of dollars at the gas pump and eliminate millions of gallons of fuel each day, according to a study published Thursday in the Nature journal Communications Sustainability. That is fuel that, when burned, emits planet-warming gases into the atmosphere.

Road safety activists and some states are pushing to depart from a longstanding rule that sets speed limits in the United States based largely on how fast drivers actually travel. This is due to the 85% rule, which ties speed limits to the speed of the 15th-fastest vehicle out of every 100 traveling a road in ideal conditions. Critics say this approach encourages speeding. Ohio is among the states considering new guidelines that focus more on safety. But supporters of the rule say it provides the safer approach by limiting the speed discrepancy between drivers who abide by the posted sign and those who ignore it because the road design allows them to do so.