Hypermiling - The new menace on the road?

I think this is another case of finding what you want to find and reporting on only that. If they had done any investigating at CleanMPG.com they would see that drafting trucks at less than a car length is not recommended. It is only mentioned because it does work but is much too dangerous to use. It would be like saying that steroids don't increase muscle mass. The fact is that they do but it is much too dangerous to go that route. Acknowledging something and recommending it are two completely different things.

As for running red lights, that isn't recommended either. However, timing the lights to miss the red light is stressed. A true hypermiler will grit their teeth and hold back a few choice words and stop.

 

Nah..You gotta vent.

 

wonder who this hypermiling perp is

 

I wouldn't hypermill w/o some type of computerized laser cruise control that could sense the truck slowing down & slow you down within 0.02 seconds, otherwise it would be too unsafe, if I was a cop I would arrest anyone following another vehicle at less than 1 car length.

besides, the money you save on gas by hypermilling can't be nearly enough to repair the damage to the hood from the rocks the trucks kick up.

 

Ok, I do vent sometimes and it's not pretty.

 

That person isn't a hypermiler.

A true hypermiler would time the lights so that he arrives right as it turns green.

 

I havent really thought of myself as a hyper miler as yet. I do try to time the lights so I dont really have to stop completely. Someone here had a saying that I liked:I went something like:

slowing down is better than stopping. When a light ahead is red I let off the throttle and coast with light braking to move to the light slowly but not stop if I can help it. Its better to be rolling than start off from a dead stop. Kepp that inertia moving kind of thing.

I will P&G some almost successfully but only in city streets and not on the interstate. There I will crusie control at 55 or 60 in the right most lane.

Havent yet gotten over 50 mpg for a tank, maybe I would do that anyway.

 

Anyone notice the irony:

• Insight driver was the road jerk
• PriusChat was accused of 'bragging' about Insight style driving

Ok, sack cloth and ashes for everyone. PriusChat is the cause, a bragging forum for ... an donkey Honda Insight driver ... because the blog author said so. I especially enjoy the irony of who is cited as the 'responsible' sources.

The world is big enough for all points of view but to blame the actions of a Honda Insight driver on the claimed 'bragging' in PriusChat while claiming CleanMPG is 'responsible' ... sorry but that is a bit more irony than I care for.

Bob Wilson

 

We have E-mail and Snail-mail;
We have Driving and Hypermiling;
We have Normal and RoadRage;

 

I don't deny that Honda Insight driver in the CR blog happened - just that the first three paragraphs of throwing all hypermilers under the bus was a distortion, although the author moderated in the 4th and final para.

Got a response from CR after it was commented on Saturday, which I posted his email, then in an open letter at CleanMPG, An authoritative source on fuel economy and hypermiling suggested moderating the remarks by all would have been better.

If it's not already obvious, the majority of hypermilers would frown on the hypermiler depicted in the CR blog.

 

Hypermiling to me is driving with the traffic, 70-75 or so still getting 50+ mpg, instead of the 25 I used to get. Doubling your mileage with little or no slowdown is "Hypermiling" to me. Creeping along as a rolling roadblock can get you killed, and gives all hybrid drivers a bad reputation and a target for road ragers. Just my .02.

 

I guess if everyone else was jumping off a cliff we all might as well do it too. I didn't know that driving the posted speed limit was "creeping along." I'm getting so irritated that people who are obeying the law are being painted as the bad guys. The danger level increases along with the amount of fuel burned and pollution created as speed increases. Apparently, the price of gas isn't high enough yet because people still don't get it.

 

This was discussed rather extensively over on cleanmpg, and I
think the major conclusion was that this numbnuts was just
making stuff up and likely doesn't even know what an Insight
even looks like.
.
_H*

 

Hey Jake, Maybe the guy was just drunk. Maybe it never even happened that way, but rather the author spiced it up. When CR starts posting about inconsiderate motorhomes cutting in front of cyclists, THEN maybe I'll believe they've gotten to the truth.

 

Jeez, I wish a few folks who weren't hypermilers would do that....the stopping part that is. I've been t-boned by someone who couldn't manage to stop for a red light, and in that particular incident I would have been the fourth car through the intersection (had I made it all the way through) on the green light I had. Instead, I got the privilege of climbing out of a burning vehicle. I doubt that the driver who ran the light and hit me was hypermiling, but that wouldn't change the opinion that I hold to this day about what that person did.

I have no tolerance for people who can't respect red lights. The only exceptions are emergency responders, but they have procedures for going through red lights that I've never seen violated.

I would hope that anyone who's just trying to be environmentally sensitive and/or save a little money would just suck it up and respect the safety of everyone else at or approaching the intersection.

 

Perhaps the insight driver was having some engine trouble such that he couldn't stop or speed fast enough up the hill, and that he needed to get to the mechanic ASAP?

 

Could explain the driver of a new Silver Prius coming home at 11PM last night on our infamous Courtney Campbell Causeway. He was bolted down in the fast lane doing 40 mph's. Lots of pissed people flying by him. In rotation I ended up behind him. I ended up flashing my lights at him to try to get him to move over before he got shot at. Still there. 40 mph's on a 70 road fast lane. OK wait a little and then hit the brights again.The brights on my 07 are really really bright. Nope he just sat there. Fast lane. If you can drive in front of me and I have my brights on your either blind or a lunatic cause they are powerful.
This road has had a few road rage episodes in the last few years one resulting in death. Cars piled up 20 deep behind him.
I rarely even look at the consumption meter anymore.I just drive regular and its averaged out to 47 mpg's.If you try to drive slow in the slow lane you will get rear ended down here.

 

Prius drivers don't hold a monopoly on bad driving, but they don't have an exemption from it either. Bad drivers are everywhere. Driving should be a privilege, not a right.

Tom

 

it's that way in the Orlando area also. All I want to do it the speed limit. No 40mph in the fast lane. Im in the right most lane doing the posted speed *LIMIT* and I still get light flashes and sometimes worse. Some like to pass me very closely to try to scare me. Some pull back in front of me nearly clipping me. Childish.

If someone did that to them there would be gun fire. My best defense usually is to find a slower truck and park on it's six. 300ft lbs of torque could make short work of most of those cars but I dont. It would waste MY gas.

I average 50mpg on the interstate to work 33 miles one way. I wish it wee more!