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On my way back from visiting Grandmom, I had a segment getting 98.9mpg over 141.9 miles before having to give up. Were it not for a big early hit on the freeway, chances would have been excellent the 100mpg mark would have been broken. Clearly my personal best (PR). Had additional excitement that Sunday evening....

It's clear to me that some drivers become hostile at hypermilers. Keep in mind that drivers always had at least one lane to my left to pass, and sometimes four. Some of the time, I'd be tailgated for as much as a mile then they would take the exit. I really got concerned when a policeman was tailing me - I got my speed up to 55mph and that was basically the end of my attempt to break 100mpg. A few drivers were tailgating me who clearly did not have an exit to make and did not want to pass - they wanted to be a pain in the butt. One of them very nearly crashed from his hostile driving.

Fast & Furious Stunt Driver Reject?

I was westbound on I635 (LBJ Freeway) at about 45mph and this sports car (seemed like an Acura, but hard to tell) did one of those patently offensive charges from the rear, abrupt slowdown and does the butt-wiggle in the process. I'm all but certain I responded with a little butt-wiggle, before I considered this idiot is probably not sober. Anyway, he was going to attempt to swerve and peel past me just inches away, but it backfired for him badly. I'm guessing he did a quarter turn to the left - enough to lose control. He swerved to the lane to the left of me, in an uncontroled slalom, swerved to the lane to the right of me - crossed three over three lanes and nearly spun out. :eek: He was frightenly close to hitting the concrete barrier on the right side of the freeway. Did he stop and give thanks to God for not crashing? No - he peeled back on the road to 60-70mph, passed me, and took the next exit(Preston). :confused: :mad: Frankly, I wished he had crashed - only the car would have been lost. The way he was driving he was putting himself and others at risk. Come to think of it, he may be mentioned on Monday's news. :(

I hope the next attempt at 100mpg will be a lot more boring. Got to remember to avoid weekend nights, too...

And of course people will read this and say "see your hypermiling almost caused an accident" When in reality you were obeying the law and this guy wasn't. Ironic how that little fact gets overlooked by people.

And heaven forbid you leave a buffer in front of you for braking while you are hypermiling, geez, that get's'em upset.

A local article the morning after discusses drivers frustrated with people who go slow in the left lane.

Channel 5 Fort Worth Story (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13147914/)

Many of us have discussed in depth about driving in the passing or HOV lane. Last night I was never in that lane. I was in the right most lane, occasionally taking the shoulder when it was safe, occasionally going left one lane if someone wanted to exit the freeway.

The clear message I got last night is a significant number of drivers will try to run over you in any lane - even if there are four lanes to the left of you. :mad:

It gets worse: Speed limit could be 60mph - you are going 45 doing everything to encourage others to just pass by. A few idiots get angry and tailgate and/or honk to harass. Sorry, I don't think I was "impeding the flow of traffic" as Texas law states. You simply have some people that feel the freeway should be a legalized raceway!

Once in a while I try to be "broad minded" and see things from the perspective of drivers behind me. On the one hand the issue is very simple: the speed limit is the limit and you are legally obligated to drive at or below it. Doing 15 under is legal, 5 over is not. But there's another perspective.

Legal or not, I have never thought that posted limits are the be-al and end-all of safety. They are purposefully conservative, and in some conditions you can exceed by a bit without really increasing your risk of accident. I drove 72 in a 65 happily for years before my sudden change, never got myself in trouble legal or otherwise. Honestly, coming up on somebody doing the limit or below in the right lane never got me agitated or upset, as the signs are clear on who was right. But coming up on somebody doing 65mph or less in the left lane did aggravate me. One has to accept that traffic does tend to flow over the limit, and screwing with the pattern causes more problems than it solves.

It boils down to the need to respect the other people on the road. The highway is nobody's personal race track, nor is it our personal hypermiling venue. The reason I don't drive slower, DWL more, and generally pretend that they are not there is because they are there most of the time. (I also don't have lean burn to worry about, unfortunately :( )

How you convey this to other drivers, I don't know. If you rush to get out of the way, they will assume that their bad behavior worked and keep right on doing it. If you explain what you are doing ("I get xxx mpg" bumper stickers) they take it as a snooty assertion that you are better than they are, inadvertently inducing rudeness. A bumper sticker with the simple word "Respect"? Ehh...maybe but I don't know.

At the end of the day you have to accept that these people exist and you really can't do anything about it. It's frustrating, which is why I do more than my fair share of venting about it here! But if it makes you feel any better, these people do get caught. Just because they got away with it this morning, yesterday, and will probably get away with it tomorrow doesn't mean that the bad karma won't get back around. One day, the guy in the black Dodge Ram six inches from your bumper will take one too many chances. It only takes one blatantly bad lane change, one quick dive into the trottle on a desolate road, one cruise at 15 over throgh a nasty LIDAR trap to get what he has coming.


**SIDE NOTE**
One thing I have considered is to re-fit my radar detector in plain view. Make them wonder a little!

It just occured to me that school just ended - maybe that has something to do with the crazy traffic last night.

Also, there were a six or so bikers racing at about 90mph a couple of minutes before the guy that nearly crashed.

Another forum discussed this and a few were arrogant enough to say everyone should speed. {sigh} If there is one thing worse than breaking the law, it's badgering others on the freeway to also break the law.

I just have to use discretion on the when and where to hypermile - last night was a bad time.

On a somewhat lighter note, I had a variation of someone at the gas station "do you like your hybrid?". He was panhandeling. I hope the alchol mix went into his truck, not his six pack. :D

I just realized that the 140-mile run of 98.9mpg was likely a true 100mpg run!

Until recently, I have not calculated mpg the old-fashioned way - got lazy and relied on the FCD. It turns out that the FCD is underestimating the mpg by 3-5% over a full tank.

oh oh. Now the world will never know. If you input your data into the various mileage databases they would have done the calc for you. ;)

oh oh. Now the world will never know. If you input your data into the various mileage databases they would have done the calc for you. ;)

Kind of like NASA losing the original recording of Neil Armstrong's first words on the Moon... :p

I think someone found a copy of those though. Someone had a copy from a documentary they were doing. I think they were found this week or last.

It turns out that the FCD is underestimating the MPG by 3-5% over a full tank.
I find that below about 60 acutal MPG the dash is optimistic, while above about 63-64 actual it cuts me short.
Right now my dash is sitting just over 70 for over 500 miles so I'm guessing about 73 actual MPG so far.

Texas must be a terrible place to drive on the freeway and I guess I must be blessed not to have such difficulty here in GA. As I'm plodding along in the Right lane at or somewhat below the posted limit:
Probably 80% of traffic behind will recognize a slower vehicle and move one lane Left several hundred feet behind. I don't hardly even notice those drivers.
About 10% will follow at a safe, comfortable distance for miles on end before going around. Some just keep behind until they or I exit.
Maybe 9% will briefly get behind, still at a safe distance before moving Left.
Only a tiny small number will tailgate. When this happens it's usually folks in the Right lane heading for the exit.

When entering freeway traffic, here in GA it's up to incoming traffic to merge with existing freeway traffic but is seldom followed. My biggest issue on the road is idiots with cell phones compressed onto the Left side of their head as they push themselves over.

The only time I experinced rage was two days of pure hell when I had my rear bumper sticker "I GET 65MPG...YOU?"

I have a special appreciaton for those hypermiling in Texas!

Hi Steve:

___About the HCH-I’s FCD vs. actual over/under reporting … Last year when Tom and I went out for a few hundred miles of maximum – no-holds – barred “Take the gloves off” type hypermiling (well almost as he wouldn’t let me use all the tool in the tool box ;)), he told me up front about the 3 - 5 mpg FCD over reporting vs. actual. That day we recorded some of the stupidest FE numbers an HCH-I w/ a CVT may have ever seen (I am sure you remember the write-up) but after that tank, Tom’s FCD matched the fill almost exactly IIRC. It was weird as I know he has seen before and ever since the FCD 3 to 5 mpg over report except for the day when we took her up to levels she was by no means used to seeing or performing at in the least … I wonder if what you are experiencing between an average tank and great tank over the years is similar? + or - … whatever. Just let me know your thoughts when you find the time later on after work early tomorrow morning.

___Good Luck

___Wayne

I wonder if that is true for my car as well. I guess the only way to tell is to give it to someone to drive it to those kinds of numbers for a tank.

I wonder if that is true for my car as well. I guess the only way to tell is to give it to someone to drive it to those kinds of numbers for a tank.

OOH, OOH! I think I know someone! :driveby1: :D