Bittersweet

I don't know what it is about these cars that messes with our perceptions the way they do.

I have a 50 mile one way commute. The road that I drive happens to give me a straight shot in to work. Much of the city part was enough to get me grumbling angrily at the DOT and the sheer randomness of the traffic lights in the area.

About 5 years ago, the state started a major widening project on this highway. It was nice watching the traffic light count slowly drop, and the commute time gradually shorten.

Then I got moved to day shift. Now I get the "fun" of driving rush hour traffic to and from work. My commute time increased by 30 minutes on the inbound side. This was enough to have me looking strictly at the Prius when my Saturn VUE started giving me problems for the 7th time in 15 months of ownership. As I was also going to have to give up two other vehicles, one being my commuter, to eat the negative equity, I needed a car. A small SUV would have to wait for now.

After buying the Prius, I was alot happier not listening to the engine burn up money while sitting and crawling through the construction zone. I didn't grumble angrily at the slowly creeping traffic anymore.

Well, as of yesterday, the most heavily travelled part of the highway was officially opened. Traffic lights have now been cut in half, down to four for the suburban part of my drive. While traffic now flows much more smoothly through this stretch of road, I am resigned to the fact that I won't ever see 99.9 mpg segments on my display again, unless there is a wreck. I will now be finding it a bit harder to keep the computer at or above 50 mpg on my commute.

Leave it to the Prius to make one actually MISS sitting in traffic and creeping along slowly - reveling in the fact that you aren't using one drop of fuel in the process. Oh well, at least I'm not losing 20 to 30 minutes a day in sitting in stopped traffic.

 

Actually, yes. The stretch of highway near where I live is quite hilly. It takes its own toll on my overall fuel economy. :?

They were replacing a bridge on one of the local county roads nearby. The alternate that I found, allowed me to run in stealth throughout the vast majority of that roadway. It was not unusual to pull up to the house with the battery at 1/2 on the indicator.