New job, bad milage.

I've been averaging ~50mpg during the fall with my Prius before winter started. I slapped on a Toyo winter tires and my milage went down into the low 40's. For me, it's more important to be safe then save $ on the gas. My one way commute to the office was around 20 miles.

I started a new job 2 weeks ago that's a lot close to home at just under 7 miles. With snow tires (I know, I just got back from a trip to Africa for 3 weeks and it was snowing the day I left so I needed my snow tires. -> Boston), I was getting ~37mpg by being super conscious. Not to mention that I am at a new job and everyone is curious so I am driving every day for a 1 mile driver to a local lunch stops. With the original tire back on my car, I was able to finish the tank at ~40mpg.

The problem is my commute is now on a stop and go traffic on lights, and I need to push the Prius to keep up with a traffic. I don't want to be one of those slow people who keeps creeping up slowly and missing the light. Not to mention that my commute without traffic is 20 minutes so Prius doesn't get a chance to warm up. So my milage has tanked. I am considering putting in the EV switch, but I read from others that it could make things worse. I am now turning the climate control off at times to keep the engine from kicking in. (Boston temp is in the 40's this weekend.)

On the good news, there is a chance that my new job will move to an office that is close to T (subway) station and that line runs 3 blocks from me. So I am praying that I will be using the subway. I realize that if I had to drive my Audi V8, I'd probably be getting 13mpg right now. (OK, 15mpg without the snow tires.)

Because no matter how high of a milage I get with Prius, nothing beats using a mass transportation device for environment conscious minds.

-Igglue