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The Cincinnati Enquirer is looking to talk to Cincinnati-area hypermilers (esp. female hypermilers). Click the link to see their article about gas prices, and you'll notice the call for hypermiler info on the right.

http://news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080725/NEWS01/807270302/-1/fuel

Margaret McGurk is writing the article. Her email address is mmcgurk@enquirer.com. She seems open to hypermiling (though she hyphenates the word for some reason). The more level-headed hypermilers to contact her, the better.

She called me and I talked to her for about 20 minutes.

Hi All:

___Moved to the Media forum...

___Good Luck

___Wayne

Also I just finished up segment with Paula Toti local ch 12 in Cincinnati. I installed a scanguage in her car and gave her two clinics. She has a 90 Honda CRV. I had her make a run without instruction and then make a run with instruction.

For the city segment, I used the same route that we use for the Fuel Economy Challenge. It is 5 miles. She got 19.6 and after instruction she got 23.3 on the same segment. All I had her do was watch TPS, LOD, and MPG and showed her how to set a tps and hold it.

On the highway segment, We drove 18 miles on Rt 50 along the Ohio River. First, she drove like she always did and got 30.3. Again I showed her how to pulse using a TPS/IGN and then glide using a different TPS/IGN similiar that we do in the Prius using SHM. After instruction, she got 36.9.

In both cases, it was about a 20% increase with minimal technique.

Here are some pics.

http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/500/DSC03928a.jpg
http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/500/DSC03914a.jpg
http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/500/DSC04147q.jpg
http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/500/DSC04146a.jpg

Wow, that's great! I can't wait to see the video.

The article is going to run in the Enquirer on Wednesday, I was told.

I'll actually buy a local paper :)

~bestmapman: I haven't been able to get a hold of Kayleigh lately--would she be interested in doing such an article (is Dayton close enough?)

I haven't been able to get a hold of Kayleigh lately

I haven't been able to get a hold of her either.

Wednesday? Sweet, can't wait.

Wednesday? Sweet, can't wait.

I got a call today and she's now saying sometime this weekend.

I'm hoping for Sunday so it gets better visibility :)

The video ran today. It was a good piece and a good plug for cleanmpg at the end.

Link (http://www.local12.com/content/money_alert/story.aspx?content_id=5005c492-d976-4c35-a137-570e345c5561) to site

Link (http://www.local12.com/mediacenter/local.aspx?videoid=31510@video.wkrc.com) to video.

Very nice!

I thought it was amusing how the article is titled "Can Scan Gauge Reduce Mileage?", while the video one inch under it is titled "Can Scan Gauge Boost Mileage?".

Did the article not appear in the enquirer? Or did I miss it?

I have not seen any article yet.

I have not seen any article yet.

I haven't seen it either and my attempts to contact Margaret have been met with her answering machine. I'll try again tomorrow around noon and see what happened.

Here is a different article that ran today.

Link (http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008808080442)

I was about to point that out. I'll make it into a news article tonight.

The article is finally up (sadly enough, a picture of me and my wife is on the front page of the paper--beware):

http://news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/AB/20080814/NEWS01/808140307/

AAA vice president Marshall Doney took hypermilers to task for . . . putting cars in neutral to coast
Even safety-conscious hypermilers advise coasting in neutral only on mild downgrades when traffic is minimal. But Lt. Anthony C. Bradshaw of the Ohio Highway Patrol does not much care for that advice. While it is legal to let a car roll when it is not in gear, he noted, it only takes a split second to lose control if something unexpected happens.
gliding engine-on in neutral is a safe and effective practice if one is comfortable with it and does it only in safe locations.
My parents saw the article and decided N-ice on coasting is dangerous, even though the only difference safety-wise is the extra 0.5 seconds if I have to accelerate :mad:

My parents saw the article and decided N-ice on coasting is dangerous, even though the only difference safety-wise is the extra 0.5 seconds if I have to accelerate :mad:

Then they souldn't do it.

It is an advanced technique and if you are not familiar with your car, or know what it's handleing characteristics are, then you shouldn't do it.

"But Lt. Anthony C. Bradshaw of the Ohio Highway Patrol does not much care for that advice. While it is legal to let a car roll when it is not in gear, he noted, it only takes a split second to lose control if something unexpected happens."

That's a little frustrating, just because what he says is true of driving in any conditions, whether you're in neutral or not. And since when I'm hypermiling, I'm a lot more aware of my surroundings, I feel pretty confident in what I'm doing. Esp. since it took me a long time to learn to do it right.

My parents don't use any hypermiling techniques (not even slow accelerations), so that's not really the issue. I've been using Nice ons for two months or so without incident, and now they're convinced that I'm going to crash if I keep doing it. "mild downgrades" and "minimal" traffic wasn't really defined, so to them having any cars within 500 feet and any downgrade where I can maintain speed in N is not a "safe location". I honestly don't see how handling, accelerations aside, would be affected by shifting to neutral.

My parents saw the article and decided N-ice on coasting is dangerous, even though the only difference safety-wise is the extra 0.5 seconds if I have to accelerate :mad:

Tell them to name one defensive driving class that advocated hitting the gas to get out of a sticky situation.

Trust me they all say hit the brake.


"But Lt. Anthony C. Bradshaw of the Ohio Highway Patrol does not much care for that advice. While it is legal to let a car roll when it is not in gear, he noted, it only takes a split second to lose control if something unexpected happens."

Having been pulled over three times in Ohio for no reason, two by the Ohio Highway Patrol and one by Union Township, I have no respect for those guys.

I don't get why people think if you try hypermiling your car will spontaneously explode, the sky will fall and we will see Elvis again.


Edit: If I'm in a bad mood it's because I just had to assemble some furniture with those god-awful instruction books. :rolleyes:

It made the front page of the Enquirer. News article in appropriate section to come when possible. (read: tomorrow when it's not 3 AM :))

They just had to include the AAA rip-job though which I will probably have to call the reporter out on the carpet for.

I wasn't bothered by her mentioning the AAA release. I think the article is pretty positive about hypermiling. What follows the AAA part says pretty explicitly that hypermiling is safe.

The article from the Cincinnati Enquirer is up on the home page. Also that and another one from the Courier-Journal I've been meaning to do for a while. :)