Anyone getting better mileage in the city verses the freeway?

I generally do better on the freeway, especially when the Cruise Control is on.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Robert564 @ Jul 10 2006, 11:55 AM) [snapback]283842[/snapback]</div>

Answer to the left.

 

If you are talking Berkeley, East of the 580, or Richmond to Hercules, yep those numbers sound right. Let's see lots of hills stop signs and stoplights right? Temperatures around 80-90?

Do a search for short commutes and you'll see this is pretty typical for our Bay Area driving. Although my experience has been that Metro San Jose is quite different, longer stretches in between signs/lights and fewer drastic hills.

 

Eh, my MPG is about the same in-town and on the highway, but most of my in-town trips are short. Averaging right around 50 MPG this summer.

 

Generally for summertime I count on highway driving being over 50 mpg and often over 55 mpg.
For city type driving ie under 40 mph, I generally get over 70 mpg.
Exceptions to both are traffic jams with constant stops and starts, or short trips under 10 miles.

 

Generally for summertime I count on highway driving being over 50 mpg and often over 55 mpg.
For city type driving ie under 40 mph, I generally get over 70 mpg.
Exceptions to both are traffic jams with constant stops and starts, or short trips under 10 miles.

 

I get far better in the city. However, I notice that the warmer it gets, the worse it is. But it's still far better then most cars.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Robert564 @ Jul 10 2006, 10:55 AM) [snapback]283842[/snapback]</div>

I get about EPA number for both. I do most of my driving in the city, a 30 min + commute each way, and my last tank was 61 MPG. On a long trip to atlanta, (300 Mi) I averaged 49 MPG. 46 on cruise control averaging about 75 with AC on and 51 with cruise off pulsing and gliding a lot. Your in-town milage is so low because of your short commute. Short trips will kill your milage.

 

i get about 51 on highway, and at least 65 city, too bad most of my driving is highway. but then again, i don't drive city when it's rush hour. mostly i'm almost alone on 4 lane roads, which lets me drive how i want.

oh, these are summer numbers. you can check my milage in sig, but i'm just now starting to get the higher numbers.

 

I've only taken one 'long trip' so far. My daily driving is short trips, so I'm averaging about 48 MPG 'city'. I got about the same on most of a 500 mile round trip over the 4th of July weekend, driving around 70 MPH. But my last stop on the way home, to get gas about 50 miles from my house, took me back onto the highway where the speed limit went down to 55 while going through a large town. It was a pleasant evening, the road wasn't crowded and I wasn't in a big hurry to get home, so I left the CC at 55, and got about 57 MPG on that 50 mile stretch.

I'm sure that if I had to commute on the Interstate on a regular basis, I wouldn't have the luxury of going only 55! As it is, I take back roads to and from work, and I routinely get passed when I'm going the 40 MPH limit on a two lane road with double yellow lines, and I almost always catch up to them at a red light about a mile down the road.

 

I do worse in the city than on the highway, mainly because my city (actually, more like suburban) trips are usually quite short and involve a lot of stop and go, as well as little hills. My really short commutes to the Metro station are real killers (usually get around 34 mpg) during when I take Metro.

Aside from the short trips, I also don't really understand why it's supposed to do much better in the city than on the highway. Everytime one has to come to a stop at a stopsign or red light, it takes gas to get it going again. I've generally been getting under 40 for city driving and close to 50 for highway.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(efusco @ Jul 10 2006, 01:36 PM) [snapback]284040[/snapback]</div>

I guess that I would chime in right about here. It depends. For me highway is 65 or better or get run over. City is 25-35 and that is optimal. It depends on driving conditions. My worse tank in the past 3 months was one I did going up and down I-5. I was suffering. Get me back to the city streets.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(hdrygas @ Jul 10 2006, 10:58 PM) [snapback]284242[/snapback]</div>

I commute to work along I95 HOV in Northern Virginia, and routinely move along at 65-75mph. That's the majority of my mileage and I was getting around 50-52. That is until I got the car (mis) aligned by a dealer, and I had the ECU reflashed. Then it dropped to 38, and much better over the highway then local. Usually summer is my highest mileage, even with the VA heat, approaching 55mpg over the hwy and 47 around town. It is relatively flat here, with low rolling hills. As the computer memory relearns the fuel map, I am hoping the mpg recovers to it's former happy 50 numbers. Right now I am only getting an average of 42. (See my other post on dramatic mpg drop). The AC makes a difference, but not as large as the ICE trying to heat this puppy in the winter! Since I am on Ethanol 10% year round, that has never been a factor. Long story short - I can't do 55 to work - I'd get run over by the trucks, and I do get better mpg over the hwy vice around town. Used to be the reverse before the reflash. Go figure.....

 

i do worse on the highway, but my city trips are pretty good sized (10+ miles at a time most of the time) and i drive too fast on the highway :lol:

 

I'll put in also that when I lived closer to work (approx. 1.5 miles instead of 15 miles), the Prius was down around 42 MPG average, with the driving being 25 mph residential for the most part. As long as conditions allowed it, I tried to bike in to work, since it took only about 5 minutes longer, used no gas, and was less stressful.

Now, with a 15 mile commute, doing my own oil changes, having learned how to drive more efficiently, etc., I'm getting around 56 MPG on average. This tank so far is doing better. The reading was sitting at ~66 MPG when I got in to work this morning. It's usually high though when I get home after filling up due to the net drop in elevation going home.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Robert564 @ Jul 11 2006, 12:19 PM) [snapback]284488[/snapback]</div>

What do we mean by city? I think our numbers are all over the place because we have, obviously, differnt cities we're referring to.

I think as efusco suggests to answer this question one needs a "better definition of driving conditions" I would go the next step and classify what exactly one means by city driving.

I think your definition is a good start but it would be interesting to have some specifc demographical markers in mind and then corrolate mpg to the 'type' of city. For instance,
San Francisco is: pop. 770,000 (yeah right! feels like 1 million), 46 sq. miles = dense, hilly, many stops, narrow streets, short commutes.
Pasadena is: pop. 250,000, 23 sq. miles = dense, some hills, few stops, wide streets, moderate commutes

There are other markers but the point being, obviously, one can't compare city driving between these two cities. So what city did Toyota have in mind? <_<