Hm now with that line I found that to be tip #10 in the Canadian version of top ten tips on how to save gas from the goverment. Now when I look at those ugly threads on other forums. They blame how unsafe I am by running red lights (not all! Only ones I know are safe to do so), and all the stop signs I run by from time to time (only on my local roads though, unknown areas I'll stop all the way), not having my engine on, the high tire pressure (15% over, but now its back to 0 due to my tire accident http://greenhybrid.com/discuss/donut.8231.html) and of course obeying the speed limit! Heck even that last tidbit didn't save me from the flamers, so my question to you folks is that line I posted in the subject really true (after all its from the goverment)? If so why does the world hate me so much when I try to pass those whom have the same potenial as me? Or do I just suck that much with the English language -_-; or maybe that the fact I'm doing some illegal things just to achieve what no one can if they are not up to breaking a few laws for themselfs, even though they are breaking many others without realizing it! My dad asked me as he was driving in his SUV with me one day, "wow don't you piss off a lot of drivers?" "what difference does it make when we arrive at the same red light? If he hits me from the behind it means you don't have to buy me a new car!! Besides that's what right lanes are for and the left lane is used for passing. People should pay attention to know if a car in front of them is approaching them too fast or too slow but people are too busy to realize it until they are really close to me to the point I can literally tap the brakes to cause some serious damage." "Well aren't what your doing is illegal?" "Look at yourself dad, your breaking the law now, your going 65km/h in a 50km/h zone." The conversation ended there, I was trying to convince him that a 600 mile tank in the toyota 4WD highlander was possible but he didn't buy it unfortnately. He still feels the risks are not worth it. Bleh. chosing the right words is a pain espically when you lost the language and then had to relearn it espically when trying to talk to those that English wasn't their first primary langauge.
This is almost exactly a message I want to try to bring to more masses, but I think I'm going to make another thread out of it because I'm going to need help with this project. . Recently I've seen a couple of drivers zip up behind me and do the usual, but then realize that no, really, I *am* going the same speed as the traffic ahead -- far ahead, but still tracking them ... and they've *backed off* and given me decent following distance even if they don't pass! Maybe there's a glimmer of hope that people are realizing how sniffing someone's ass doesn't buy anything useful. . _H*
denial denial DENIAL DENIAL DENIAL DENIAL DENIAL DENIAL DENIAL If it's "a convient lie" (to paraphrase Al Gore), people will believe Detroit and Big Oil are making big profits, and that Elvis is still around....
^^ don't forget those who believes tupac is still alive! I guess for some they go "its gas you have to suck it up nothing you can do" even though you can! But i dunno people just don't want to... for some strange reason.
People ask around the net how to get better mileage and after posting some simple, benign tips almost always get the reaction: "Drive slower in the Right lane?" "Keep momentum?" "Don't accelerate fast?" "I could never drive like that!" If someone asks those questions and finds excuses for not liking the answers I can't help that. Folks are just gonna drive how they want. I don't mind as long as they don't bug me, which brings my next point: "YOU shouldn't drive slower in the right lane" "YOU'RE being dangerous for keeping momentum" "YOU cause a bottleneck by not accelerating fast" and "YOU shouldn't drive like that" It's those comments, especially coming from gas-mashing wannabe gearheads which get my goat. But then you never know who will actually try the tips you post, and you may be suprised by a "Thank you". (Of one sort or another)
Personally, I think cruise control is highly underrated when it comes to improving fuel economy. It's gotta be the single easiest way to get someone to drive slower. If they're someone that almost never looks at their speedometer and just lets themselves speed up if traffic around them is doing 70-75mph on the freeway, just getting on the freeway, getting in the right lane and setting the cruise control at 65 will assure they don't inadvertantly go 70-75mph instead.
Phil, you know your route as well as the intersections involved. I'm sure you must have a clear line of sight, otherwise you wouldn't be the occasional scofflaw in your efforts to help squeeze the most out of a natural resource. I know that I'm actually a safer driver now that I've become truly focused on what I am doing. I always drove 5mph over the speed limit, often more. I couldn't understand why anyone would drive 5 mph under. Didn't they have some place to be??? I was always in a hurry, and so many times these same slow pokes would show up next to me at a traffic light miles down the road. I knew it then, and yet I kept running the rat maze. I couldn't jump off. Now that I have I'm a much calmer driver and am getting to my destination in virtually the same amount of time without all of the crazy stress. Maybe someday the Eqyptian crowd will wake up as I did and just slow down.
with my way of driving, i'm always driving slower than usual (due to coasting, but i try to coast wtih the speed limit). Okay sure sometimes I'm going 40km/h when I should be at 50km/h but hey the sign up there CLEARLY SAYS MAXIMUM SPEED NOT MINIMUM, so people give me a break! The thing I find hard to accept the most is when people REFUSE to coast up to a red light and that its their HUMAN RIGHT to be first in line to a red light. If I were to delay someone's from reaching their red lights (and ironically its mostly suv drivers that get pissed at me) I will see red faces and maybe some occasional, "WTF IS WRONG WITH YOU" kind of look. I play the same game they give me but in the end I'm the winner because they are still mad by the time we part our ways and I'm just wondering with that tall height driving position, you'd think they reconize the red light before me? No all they do is look down at my ass wondering when I will get the hell out of his/her way so that I can mash my foot down because i'm a BIG SCARY SUV!!!! People just don't get it, oh wells. Like I said, hit me and I will make sure you pay for my new car. I drive in the manner to get to A to B without messing with anyone, if your impatient enough to get all hotted up about being first in line at a red light you deserve to be pissed off by me. Take your precious seconds elsewhere because they are not doing yourself and the others around you any good. Man there are times when I can just take any random on the street and go, "You and me, lets go to from here to here and i will BET YOU i'll arrive almost at the same time AND get twice the mileage than you, driving the same identical car of course." Man so many people need to be proven wrong about their current driving style, like I mean how can you live like that? Honestly, draining your wallet day by day and killing every tree you see, don't you know the consequences of oil? I guess not. edit: Look you gonna flame me by taking a bus, or bike or any of that garbage, ask yourself this. I got the freedom of a car and it costs me LESS (assuming a car is given to you) to drive than to pay monthly for a bus pass!!!!! BOO yah, making the impossible possible folks. Believe it, don't doubt yourself, you can make monthly double digits gas bills a reality if you really want it.
I've recently had some conversation with my co-workers. Some of them pass me while I'm plodding along in the Right lane at 2:30AM in a 55MPH zone, going 50-55MPH fighting like hell to carefully warm her up. Well, it was really a beat-up Steve session (Not really being mean, just alot of gossip) Some comments said by others: Also mentioned was how DANGEROUS it is. "Dangerous?" I said. "I'm driving the speed limit on an empty 6-lane freeway in the middle of the night- they have 5-6 other vacant lanes to use!" (Sigh) These people complain weekly about the $70 every 5 days to fill their big vehciles. I've distributed copies to them of some pretty benign economy tips but they'd rather just grumble among themselves. Calling hypermiling dangerous is just another way to avoid change. One co-worker said he saw me one night just creeping down the road to a red light and wondered why I was going so slow. I said: "The light was red, nobody behind so why should I hurry up and wait for a red light? Why not approach very slowly until it turns green, then gradually speed up so I don't loose momentum?" I told him that I even park face-out on the 2nd to the top level of our parking deck, and when I leave work I start up, put in D just enough to nudge her moving. Then to reduce load on the cold engine I switch to N, roll across two parking decks, then down several levels to the gate and shut her down while stopped for the gates to open, then restart to nudge her moving again- then it's back to N and roll down the road to the light. Once I clear the lights it's a 2/3 mile roll so I shut her down again (FAS), roll down the hill, up the other side and down again to a Right turn where I restart. He looked dazed-puzzled. "But warmup doesn't use that much gas" he said. "And you turn off your engine??? That's dangerous" Although he had the (Probably correct) idea that I was pretty nutty about it all, at least he sounded honestly curious about how to improve his own driving. He mistakingly thinks I'm really using the hybrid drive to get my efficiency so I emailed him a nice note explaining a few things. I explained hypermiling is a great hobby for the few who are dedicated to it, but realize it isn't for most people. I also gave him a CMPG link and hope he stops by. Also included some money saving figures, showing last years hypermiling efforts will pay for most of the expenses to an auto show in Madison Wisconsin later this month- and airfare is not cheap! . That's 66MPG vs 46MPG @ $2.80/g over 35,000 miles and I'm saving almost $5,000/yr in fuel compared to my old car which did around 16MPG. I don't have my calculations here but believe it was almost $5k. (66MPG vs 16MPG) One person out of a dozen actually seemed curious on how to save fuel $$ for his family and asking questions. Good odds I think.
One reason people keep insisting on driving like asswipes is MARKETING. The manufacturers, and ALL of them are guilty here, keep selling speed and power to the impressionable. "Get ahead of the crowd", "designed to outperform", sales-slime always touting how much POWER a given crate has, etc. It's become so culturally embedded that even though car designers could easily crack 100 mpg with today's technology they're forced to build in twice the displacement and twice the accelerative capability than ANYONE except perhaps emergency personnel needs, or the econobox in question simply will not sell. That's deeply wrong at a societal-training level, and only a few have the sense to break that mold. . When we see an end to billions of dollars being poured into advertising on the basis of being able to beat the other guy to the next light, only then will we be able to improve on a sufficiently large scale. . I was just reading a New York Times magazine article about China's developing love for the automobile. They're apparently in about the same state of enthusiasm as the US was in the fifties or so -- discovering the entertainment of getting the "club" together for a long road trip, etc. They evidently also drive like complete idiots, way exceeding speed limits and when in jammed up areas around Beijing and such, are bumper-to-bumper with no concept of leaving space for maneuvering [c.f. all the "traffic waves" amateur scientist articles]. With attitudes like that, no regard for consumption, them beginning to compete on the global market for fossil fuels, and the fact that they OWN our sorry "patriotic" asses outright at this point, it all has a high likelihood of getting internationally ugly. . _H*
Hobbit you make some good points. Marketing- I'm shocked every time I see a new Ford Mustang commercial in my area. Shows a Mustang burning a 200 foot patch, screaming around corners and extremely high rate of speed, then comes to a screeching stop. The camera switches to the interior where Dad is the passenger and very young son is the driver, who looks like a 16-year old leaners permit twerp. Dad says: "Now son, you must remember this is NOT a toy." Then draws an evil cheese-eating smile and says: "Let's do it again!" son says "Oh yea" And they peel out another 200 foot double patch. Does anyone else see anything wrong with that picture? Marketing. Somebody could get killed with their promotions.
Not too long ago, Pontiac had a commercial for one of its sports models that claimed it had "plenty of attitude". My response was always "yeah, we definitely need more *attitude* out there on the road!"
