Did you know, you're likely wasting some of that expensive gas that you work so hard to pay for by punching the accelerator at a stop sign?

You're just burning up that energy gets you nowhere.

Traffic's clear, so you hit the gas.

That's a bad move, says UTD professor Diandra Leslie-Pelecky.

First, you are flooding your engine with more gas than it can burn. The rest is wasted.

Second, is your brakes.

"The brakes on a car work very much the same as the brakes on a bicycle," said Pelecky.

When the brakes touch the wheel, friction causes the brakes to get hot - just like rubbing your hands together.

"Now, if you take your hands and rub them together for a few seconds -- if you put them to your face they're warm," Pelecky added.

So what happens with your car when you speed up and then slow down fast?

"The problem is the heat that is generated is not going into making your car move, so it's wasted. It's going into heat," said Pelecky.

It's like throwing money away.

The professor has a word of advice: chill.

"You want to try to pace yourself. If you know the stop signs are coming up there's no reason to accelerate to 35 miles per hour and then have to decelerate in two blocks," Pelecky said.

E-mail dschechter@wfaa.com.