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Hi all--

The DIY/geek/productivity website Lifehacker linked (http://lifehacker.com/software/mileage/hack-your-cars-mileage-by-hypermiling-242336.php) to the article about Wayne yesterday. The thread's comments are heated, to say the least.

Warning: this is typical uneducated masses fodder. Wayne, if you're sensitive, look away. --RN

Hi all--

The DIY/geek/productivity website Lifehacker linked (http://lifehacker.com/software/mileage/hack-your-cars-mileage-by-hypermiling-242336.php) to the article about Wayne yesterday. The thread's comments are heated, to say the least.

Warning: this is typical uneducated masses fodder. Wayne, if you're sensitive, look away. --RN

I have to admire the guy that does not not quite hypermile joining the most hostile forum I've seen.

Someone needs to describe the disease the guys at this forum have - brain cells decimated by beer and testarone.

Isn't it amazing the things people will post in cyberspace, almost always about people they have not met? For instance, I met someone last fall - I rode in his Prius - he rode in my Insight - nice visit. Yet, in a heated religious thread, this man is beint potrayed as being at least as nutty as Saturday Night Live's Church Lady - way over the top. So many times, people disagree on the net, then they embellish and resort to character assassination.

So many times, I'd love for some of these ranters to be beamed into a group of mainstream people, then they see the looks from the crowd that plainly ask: "are you a nutcase?" A lot of them would realize how assine they are, but these days there seems more people that act in person like they do on that forum. :(

In general, the more hostile a person is, the weaker his arguement.


....meanwhile, people are driving slightly less, and 100,000 American autoworkers are gone because Detroit found out people would not buy 5.0 liter+ vehicles forever.

Hi HCHCIN:

___I left a little goody in that forum for a response but I guess they have to approve of it before they post it? We shall see what some of the less-informed have to say when they place the articles contents into perspective with the link provided if it is allowed. I love a good head to head myself but in a far more neutral or hybrid-centric forum where I have a small advantage ;)

___If you are a member there, please post the following at your earliest convenience and let us see what happens :D
Hi All:

___A lot of mis-information being posted here and if you would like to continue, there is a great place to reply after you have a little knowledge instead of the “off the cuff” non-sense.

http://www.cleanmpg.com/forums/showpost.php?p=18635&postcount=11

___As always, don't always believe all that you read on the Internet and don't post what you don't know about ;)___Thanks.

___Good Luck

___Wayne

Wayne--

Nah, it's not worth your time. These posters are reactionary dunces who wouldn't be swayed anyway, and any response from you is only going to inflame them more. Besides, the article has moved off the main page by now, few will check back once they post their rants.

Besides, why respond to someone who calls you an "a**hole" without ever having met you? You'll get more mileage (pardon the pun) out of trying to help those who want it, not from those who automatically dismiss it.

My favorite comment was this one:

"...I was stuck behind a hybrid driver like that one morning, long exit-only lane off the highway and the hybrid driver who was already doing only 55 in a 65 let it coast all the way down the lane, up the off ramp and to the light. I kept seeing people nosedive as they would come up beind me and the rest of the line of traffic as they had to slam on their brakes."

You can almost hear him saying "hybrid driver" in the same derisive, disgusted tone as one might say "cockroach." And also -- since when is a speed limit the requirement? "Only" 55 in a 65? That's like saying why bake bread at 350 when your oven clearly goes up to 550. Just because you can doesn't mean you should.

My favorite comment was this one:

"...I was stuck behind a hybrid driver like that one morning, long exit-only lane off the highway and the hybrid driver who was already doing only 55 in a 65 let it coast all the way down the lane, up the off ramp and to the light. I kept seeing people nosedive as they would come up beind me and the rest of the line of traffic as they had to slam on their brakes."

OMG, you denied them a chance to run a red light or do the whiplash test if they slammed the breaks.

"...I was stuck behind a hybrid driver like that one morning, long exit-only lane off the highway and the hybrid driver who was already doing only 55 in a 65 let it coast all the way down the lane, up the off ramp and to the light. I kept seeing people nosedive as they would come up beind me and the rest of the line of traffic as they had to slam on their brakes."


Hey, that sounds familiar! Let me think...oh, right. With the exception of cruising at 55 in a 65 (I like to pretty much keep up with right lane traffic) that's the exact maneuver I'm going to pull in about a half hour. It's that or we all go around a blind turn at 65mph, 500 feet before an intersection that's usually red in my direction. Man, I'm such ann ***hole!

Wayne, as of 3:15pm, it looks like they haven't gotten the nerve to allow your post yet.;)

Even the act of ignoring the Lifehacker thread would be to grant it more attention than it deserves.

While one of these yahoos are asleep, could we just abduct them into HybridFest 2007?

Include a doctor - I think his chest would explode. :D




....I'm getting an evil idea of what to do at HybridFest - something these cowardly flamers would never do. :p

I read the comments earlier today, and skimmed them again just now... and apart from the cheap, unfounded attacks on Wayne's character, this doesn't seem that bad to me. It is a fact that some of the techniques in our arsenal are illegal and can be dangerous. I wouldn't trust the average driver to be able to safely draft a semi with the engine off. Of course, I also don't trust the average driver to safely drive 80 in a 65 whilst talking on the cell. Is one more dangerous than the other? Probably not. But one is the norm, the other the exception.

We, the enlightened minority, should not be too reactionary to stuff like this. Might make us seem insecure. Negativity begets negativity. You'll catch more flies with honey, and that sort of thing. Educate the undereducated.

:Banane41:
Peace and love!

I'd like to point out another difference between the risks hypermilers take and the distracted driver....I already said it - the distracted driver is not paying attention and a greater risk.

I agree with fenrir. It is best to tread softly.

I came up with something that might be a good argument about "You drive too slow in the driving lane and you will cause an accident."

We should say "Ohh, so when a speeder looses control of his car and hits a tree it is the trees fault for being where it was supposed to be." Or something like that.

Let 'em think what they want. It's a free world.

There were plenty people who thought that the world was flat, that the earth was the center of the universe, that legalized divorce would ruin civilization, that Galen's theory of blood circulation with a heart that moved the blood was bunk, etc. etc.

A few intrepid souls have shown the rest of us that the stated EPA estimates are not a limit, that they actually can be surpassed if you put some attention on it. Of course there will be naysayers.

Let 'em yap while we drive past the gas stations.

Got to love the human condition...

Tom and others comment:
It is best to tread softly
I'll have to agree. The thread seems to me to be like passing AA leaflets at a drunken party.

Actually I only read the MJ article this evening and was honestly shocked. Talk about bad journalism. Seems to be allot of that going around.
I'd like to mention that Wayne was a major player in my hypermiling training, especially several years ago when there really wasn't any information.
I really thank Wayne for that.

If we ever have a giant surge in pump prices and gas is in short supply like 1973 or WWII, some of these flamers are going to memorize that article before they eat it.

My pet theory is aggressive drivers and others that lean that way are the most hostile to the Mother Jones article. The faster people drive at the time, the more howls. It would have been better received in 1973 during the Oil Embargo or right after Hurricane Katrina. When there is another sharp spike in pump prices, readers will also be friendlier (note to Mother Jones: Reprint at the next hike).

Keith Bradshier and Clotaire Rapaille have mentioned how the pickup/SUV commercials pay to the caveman in many of us - it's not reasoning. It's about power, respect, dominance....does that mean anti-aircraft guns should be an option? :p These feelings seem to dominate aggressive driving - some times it's an expression more than being late. Commutes over the years have gotten longer with more congestion and inevitably more "shoving" - encourging a fighter's mentality.

When some see the Mother Jones article, aggressive drivers will instinctivly feel threatened, like an ancient village seeing a traveler from a far away land. They don't discuss - they react. It does not matter that hypermiling can be done in a way that does not interfere with aggressive drivers to them. It does not matter if hypermilers often drive during non-peak hours. It does not matter if hypermilers often defer from some techinuqes if traffic conditions dictate them. It does not matter that hypermilers are occasionally "Red" in their socio-political outlook. To these people, hypermilers are threatening and must be discredited - destroyed.

This is how I size up "discussions" over that Mother Jones article like the one this week that turned south - drivers that tend to be lead-footed reacting like cornered animals. It's going to take more to reach them...the only thing I know of is a substantial price in gas.