With the gas prices way up (sooo painful), I have started to practice some hypermiling techniques - trying anything to get those extra miles per gallon.
I will probably never exercise the extreme hypermiling measures (avoiding hilly routes, drafting other cars or trucks, turning off the engine when at red lights, etc.), but some of the simpler techniques, such as reducing hard stops or fast accelerations, coasting into red lights, or trying to time traffic lights to avoid stops, can reap decent benefits.
Interested in the benefits of hypermiling? You'd be surprised by what can be achieved.
http://www.edmunds.com/advice/fueleconomy/articles/120880/article.html
http://money.cnn.com/2006/05/01/Autos/driving_for_mpg/index.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypermiling
Reducing the hard (or even normal) accelerations are going to be tough for me. I don't want to be labeled the milkshake who takes forever to accelerate up to posted speeds.
Tony Jankiewicz
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Nice post. I bought a Civic Hybrid a couple of years ago and it totally changed my perspective about the nature of “performance” driving. As a lifelong gearhead, it took me a while. But now I realize that there are many forms that performance driving can take. I have done track days before in both open- and closed-wheel cars, run the infamous 24 Hours of LeMons (not to be confused with LeMans!) and misspent a great deal of my youth consuming great gobs of concrete at extralegal speeds. Now, at least when I’m driving the Honda, I am completely obsessed with efficiency. Not to the extent that anyone complains or honks, but if you treat driving like a cyclist (i.e., maintaining momentum, properly inflating tires, accelerating and braking gently and so forth) you tend to rack up the sweet mileage. For what it’s worth, I’ve gotten 54 mpg before on a 250-mile highway drive, averaged almost 48 for a drive to Lake Tahoe and back (500 miles up and down a 6,500-foot mountain) and am currently sitting on 41.5 for the last month or so of mixed driving. Perhaps, best of all, trying to hypermile takes some of the anger factor out of commuting too.
DT
Posted by Daniel Turman | May 8, 2008 2:27 PM
Posted on May 8, 2008 14:27