An Austin woman is home after setting a new world record for getting the highest gas mileage on a road trip.

Jennie Chen crisscrossed the country in a 2009 Honda Civic Hybrid in November. She made the trip with two friends over 12 days. The average gas mileage was 68 miles per gallon.

"We're trying to use physics. Once you get the car going, it will go a long ways without you giving it any gas or giving it any battery power," Chen said.

Chen returned home last week. Now she uses her gas-saving skills on the streets of Austin.

"If I see a red light come up, what I'll do is I'll start braking far ahead. So by the time I get there, if the light was red it will have turned green," she said.

Chen's strategy can be summed up in one word, patience. Chen said she always gets to places just as fast as other drivers, only in a smarter way.

So whenever she gets "that look" through the window, Chen just smiles. After all, she's setting her own record in her pocketbook.

When she's not trying to break world records, Chen studies human mating behaviors as a PhD student at Texas A&M.

The Guiness Book of World Records authorized her road trip.
Chen said she's still going through the paperwork to get official recognition, but she expects to have it by January.

The former fuel economy title holders were Austrailians. Their record was ten miles per gallon less than Chen's.