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Well today I saw a new record breached on my trip meter – 73mpg! That was at about mile 17 on my 19 mile commute. I only wish I could have watched it closer to see where exactly at “73-point-what” it peaked -- I was just too excited. The segment ended up at 69.5 when I shifted into park at work and 69.4 when I turned the key off. Oh the misery...:(
This is exactly the same morning segment I’ve been driving since recording mileage -- no changes. Usually it’s exactly 19.1 miles but I remember this morning I forgot to reset the trip meter till I was halfway down my block. So this one was 19.0 miles.

No I wasn’t drafting or doing anything special. I don't use cruise control. A few light spells of EV w/assist, as usual, nothing more. My battery is within 1 square of full charge. Headlights and radio were on.

Average speed overall was 54 mph maybe. I was either in the right or next-to-right lane all the time. Not hassled by any tailgaters.

One difference today I think was that I was able to maintain a more constant speed, maybe because of slightly lighter traffic. I didn’t have to change my speed drastically due to traffic in front of me.

Another thing is I’m starting to view the commute as really 5 segments, which have a lot of symmetry now that I think about it. The surface streets I take at the very beginning and end of the segment are roughly a mile each. Then there is an initial 2-mile freeway connector segment again, at each end. In the very middle is the main 13 mile freeway segment. That seems to be the part where I really build FE. So I’ve gotten to where I have a good idea where my mpg is supposed to be at each stage of my commute.

Another point I find interesting. If you remember, I noted some weeks before something to the effect that it’s funny how you can tell early whether it’s going to be a good FE day or not. What I think I’m seeing is that if you can build a good FE early on (whether by chance or by skill) it seems that you set a plateau and then can build on it. I don’t know this for sure and it seems counter-intuitive, actually. I had thought that early FE numbers were fairly unstable, and you couldn’t really build on them because the numbers are based on only a couple miles. So I felt I could always make up for a bad start, once I got on the main 13 mile stretch. Mostly though I never could compensate, if I was really down in the beginning. However that 13 mi stretch is where I still feel most of the FE building is done because you need those miles to work for you. That’s why I think many people in hybrids become frustrated at their low FEs because -- no matter how light they are on their pedal -- their commutes are just too short to allow their FE to build. But my main point is that I’ve seen my best segments – my record segments – when I was able to get my FE up really really early. So the last couple weeks for example, I’d start the long 13 miles stretch somewhere in the ‘40s. Today, I entered that stretch in the mid-50s and had the luxury of having 13 miles in which to continue building from there. That, I think is the difference.

The bad part for me is that at the end of the 13 mile “FE-builder” part, the next 2 mile freeway part, and the short surface street part are “FE-killers” because they’re slightly uphill. So when I finally park my car at work I’ve inevitably dropped 2-4 mpg below whatever my peak was. That’s why I ended up at 69.X

So, like the kid who keeps asking “why” -- why today did I start off getting such high mpg so early? I think because I’d been wondering about those “stars&planets days” and any patterns. And I remembered another commute on my way home also happened to start out high and ended at another personal record. So this time I put more focus into what I was doing starting out, and have to say luck also helped—the traffic seemed a bit lighter, and I didn’t have to change my speed as often or do much maneuvering.

No I hadn’t brought my camera with me today, but no way was I going to let this moment slip away unrecorded. I thought well someone at work will have a camera phone I can borrow but turned out no one did because of the strict security rules at our plant. So I went to our security director who I knew had a digital camera he loaned out for office parties, gave him an especially big smile and asked to borrow it to take a photo of my car "for insurance purposes". No problem, I sign a piece of paper and check it out. Run over to my car, turn the key to ignition-2, and my 69.4 instantly becomes 69.3. :mad: I’m ready to pop an artery but I get the photo.* The guards had to check the photo themselves before they let me have the file, but at least they didn’t ask any questions, don’t think they understood what kind of odometer they were looking at. If they did, I have a feeling I’d have been in for quite a BIT of explaining. :eek:

* See the gallery

excellent post! You went into great detail describing the mentally that a hypermiler must face as he goes through "checkpoints" on his route.

You are right though, a lot of it is luck because of traffic and courtesy at its best. Although for sure your segment shows promise in the HCHII since I always had the impression that the HCHI was a better hypermiler's car.

Your proving them wrong! And the on the otherside of the gender too ;) Congrats and now on to to the higher ranks of 80's ;) good luck!

Hi Tarabell:

___Not only was that a well written and detailed thought process you were describing, it was a great segment too ;)

___I believe you are beginning to handle your car and all of its nuances that much better now given it is not so new anymore. You appear to be tackling the slight changes in terrain and traffic conditions with automatic adjustments far better then you have in the past besides the fact temps are up and the car is beginning to break in. Add it all up and bingo, a darn near record 70 + mpg segment. The item I am most amazed by is the fact you are doing this in < 20 miles. I can just imagine that first 2 or 3 miles are absolutely abysmal and you are climbing out of that hole from the time you start her up but with your new found prowess, everything is starting to come together just when it should!

http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/500/Odometer.jpg

___What I would like you to describe is how you are handling slight hills and overpasses, slight down hills, and lights and stop signs because this is where the regular HCH-II driver may not yet be up to speed? Are you using EV/Glide for an actual coast down or are you still trying to maintain speed on surface streets when it’s evoked? Although I am still in the camp that believes the HCH-I with a stick may have the advantage in FE of all the HCH variants, you are quickly showing me that this conclusion is quite possibly incorrect and even more likely, way off the mark! I can think of a number of ways to break the HCH-II into another realm but not without really throwing her far beyond where she was designed. I do not get the feeling you are aggressively FAS’ing and or in any kind of P&G other then what she has built in to begin with and that alone speaks volumes for that high a FE reading with < a 20 mile segment.

___Keep us informed of your progress over the next few days barring rain or high winds. In particular, let us know if the car is simply becoming less foreign to you (you have finally become one with the iFCD ;)). It may not feel like it but I bet you are paying far less attention to the iFCD nowadays with even better results! Or is she just breaking in and you have not really changed any single technique or habit during your daily commute … I have to believe the former but it will be interesting nonetheless to hear from you if you think it’s the car or if you are just that much better a driver then you were previously. Another quick test would be to give us a blow by blow of your husband’s drive. Has he seen a 25 + % improvement in FE during his own drive or is he still receiving near what he did when you first picked it up? This would be a tell tale sign as to your new found hypermiling capabilities better then any other?

___Finally, Tom was telling me about HCH-II’s w/ 65 + mpg segments and told me to keep my eyes open for either you or Mark to post something really big in the not to distant future. I see that was not really that far off and you are doing great!

___Good Luck and what a great segment if I do say so myself …

PS: I took the liberty to crop your pic so as to keep the focus on the gauge cluster instead of all that empty dash space underneath. I hope you like it?

___Wayne

Good Job! :)

Best segment to date in the EX has been 53 mpg by the SG.

You went into great detail describing the mentally that a hypermiler must face as he goes through "checkpoints" on his route.
Yeah, "checkpoints". That's a good term for how I think of it. I think keeping this detailed mileage log by segment was a very helpful part of the process. Because when you're watching it day after day it helps you start to distinguish these little patterns and differences:

"This slope should always bump me 5mpg."
"At this interchange I should be up to here."
"This part makes me usually drop to here."

a lot of it is luck because of traffic and courtesy at its best.
No question Phil. The days when all the stoplights turn green at approach and there happens to be no traffic to bump up against are much better than the days you have to DWB the same route. You can still get the FE with DWB, it's just....harder.

Congrats and now on to to the higher ranks of 80's
Wasn't it just a few weeks ago I said wow I got 63mpg, it can't get much better, and the next day I got 65? Well I really don't see how the trend can climb much more on this segment unless some unfortunate geological event causes my office location to drop below sea level. It's going to level out...but thanks for the vote of confidence

Great post. Hearing good segments from people helps me to keep focused. Today I had a rough ride in and this post lifted my spirit. I'm all recharged and ready for another fight on the way home.

OK, finally getting around to answering the mail. Hope I'm not repeating myself too much here--some of this is in my "quest for higher mpg" thread.


You appear to be tackling the slight changes in terrain and traffic conditions with automatic adjustments far better then you have in the past besides the fact temps are up and the car is beginning to break in.

That's what I keep wondering -- is it the car breaking in and the temps, or is it me? I know the driver has to be the biggest factor but then you wonder in that case why didn't I consistently have good FE days...All I can say is the good days are much more frequent and consistent. For example I achieved only 2 segments in March exceeding 60mpg, then 5 segments in April. Through May 19th alone, I’ve achieved 9.

The item I am most amazed by is the fact you are doing this in < 20 miles. I can just imagine that first 2 or 3 miles are absolutely abysmal and you are climbing out of that hole from the time you start her up
Amazed? You and me both. In 20 miles? I agree, nearly impossible! Of course there exist other 20 mile segments (going downhill say) where this FE would be easy. But for nominal terrain I thought you needed lots more miles of room to get these kinds of numbers. Yes, since I reset the trip meter to zero every morning, it's a bit of a hole to climb out of psychologically. But after only a mile I'm on the freeway and then it’s in the ‘40s and heading up.

What I would like you to describe is how you are handling slight hills and overpasses, slight down hills, and lights and stop signs because this is where the regular HCH-II driver may not yet be up to speed? Are you using EV/Glide for an actual coast down or are you still trying to maintain speed on surface streets when it’s evoked?
No special way on uphills other than to slow down to 50-52 and let my foot off the gas some (not all the way) on the downhills. I try not to get below 50mph on the uphills due to courtesy to drivers behind me. On downhills, I give it enough gas to cancel regen, and then let the bars of assist vary with the severity of the slope. In other words I don't try to force assist, let it go into it if/how much it wants. Most of my freeway drive I see no assist or regen--the meter's dark 95% of the time. Stoplights—always coast to them, getting better at DWB. Stop signs--I do complete stops at 2-ways, but rolling ones to conserve momentum at 4-ways especially in my quiet neighborhood at 6am. I love turning corners without braking-- :)

However I find that especially after exiting the freeway onto surface streets, the car is really hot to go into EV and I just let it have its way. In fact what I see taking off from the exit stoplight is that the i-fcd will slowly rise from my dead stop within a few seconds to 100mpg as long as I accel pretty slow and stay under 30 mph. Then it will just stay pinned up there as long as I stay fairly constant speed and I can toodle all the way to my house in EV, with the assist bars varying from 1-4. That part is fun, like I really have an electric car. I can add 2mpg to my segment FE just in the mile or so from the freeway to my house if the traffic is flowing evenly.

I do not get the feeling you are aggressively FAS’ing and or in any kind of P&G other then what she has built in to begin with and that alone speaks volumes
Trust me, I have never FAS'ed and never intentionally P&G'd either. I think I'd really love to try FAS, as I’ve seen some great opportunities for it, just want to make sure I have a script memorized in advance so I don’t panic and forget how to go back. I also would like to P&G but -- feel I can't realistically with traffic--it would have to be late with at night no one behind me. I think that would be just too annoying to another driver even at a normal distance.

In particular, let us know if the car is simply becoming less foreign to you (you have finally become one with the iFCD ;)).
Oh THAT seemed to happen months ago. My foot and eyes and iFCD are so coordinated now, it is ingrained habit, without a doubt. In fact the first time I broke 65mpg I remember I was in the worst possible mood leaving home and not even thinking about mpg or watching the meters. So no there has been no sudden “lightbulb” or anything like that. What’s changed now I think is I am comfortable driving in the right lanes, where I wasn’t say back in March. I think I also have a better appreciation for what “constant speed” really means, and DWB is now more really “without brakes” than “some brakes sometimes”. And I’m going maybe 5-7 miles slower on the freeway than before. And I’m “checkpoint conscious” of my FE now throughout my drive so I’ve kind of memorized what I gotta do at each stage to get to the next. I guess these little things add up. I am just a slower learner than some here to implement them to their fullest extent.

Another quick test would be to give us a blow by blow of your husband’s drive. Has he seen a 25 + % improvement in FE during his own drive or is he still receiving near what he did when you first picked it up?
Ha, that’s worth another thread of its own. I’ll get to that soon.

PS: I took the liberty to crop your pic so as to keep the focus on the gauge cluster instead of all that empty dash space underneath. I hope you like it?
I love it. Thank you!