Hypermiling Is It Worth It? Part Two
Posted by IT Pilgrim on June 4, 2008
Part Two:
This is part two of my personal attempt at Hypermiling.
Red Means Stop
These two are really closely related, so I am going to merge them here. Any time you see brake lights, be it at a red light, or on the highway, you let off your gas. Do you ever see the people racing up to a red light, only to slam on their brakes and the rocket off again as soon as the light turns green? Do you ever notice how you catch back up to them at the next light? Well, now you can look at them and laugh, because you realize how much gas they are wasting. There is no point in racing to catch up with the car in front of you that is hitting their brakes.
Clean Your Car
Now this one should be the easy one. Take any extra junk out of your car that you don’t need. Those 4 jackets still in the car in June, you probably don’t need those. The three books or twenty pounds of mail, get rid of it. Every pound you can save makes a difference.
So in a nutshell, that’s it. The theory is real simple, every time you hit your brakes, you have just wasted gas. There are really two problems with the whole process; the first being that you become cut-off bait and the second being that people will get MAD. When I say that people will get mad, I mean that you better keep your windows up and your doors locked mad.
For some reason I can’t fathom, people get a little crazy when you are not tailgating the car in front of you and they can see a little daylight. You will get the weavers, the light flickers, the tailgaters, you know the real road ragers. Have courage little pilgrim!
My conclusion being that Hypermiling is worth it to save gas. If you are trying to lower your stress level, well, then this is definitely not for you. Hypermiling is not for the faint of heart. It takes courage and planning not to immediately hit your brakes every time someone else does. I hope this helps anyone who was thinking about trying it. Go forth with confidence.
IT Pilgrimage 
castocreations said
I’ve started doing these things as well and actually find it reduces my stress. I’m not trying to pass people because I’m not trying to speed. I set my cruise control at 60 – the speed limit – and let others stress out about passing ME! I find that coasting to the red light or stop sign is actually a sort of peaceful and calming event. I don’t feel as much in a hurry and it’s a relief. The only time I get stressed is when it is one lane in my direction and there are cars behind me. Then I feel pressured to not start slowing down for red lights / stop signs until I get closer which defeats the purpose. 😦
Pacific said
Great ideas, here, thanks.
I have found that one of the side benefits about just going the posted speed limit is that on a 2-lane highway, a pack of cars will overtake you and then there will be empty space ahead for quite a long time (depending on how busy the road is).
It is that time with no one around that I find to be soooo peaceful; I become much more relaxed – mostly because I CAN relaxe – there are no other cars around. Of course, I am saving gas money, too.
The idea about backing out of a car space versus going ahead first, and then leaving by going straight ahead – I do that all the time; it is
1. safer – there is a clearer vision looking ahead rather than back
2. saves gas – yes, because there is only on point of “starting from zero” where the inertia is the greatest use of energy. Backing and then forwarding has two start points
3. and on another point, while I have the floor, is…
In a parking lot, I usually park far away from the door of the business, way out past all the what I call “door huggers” because of several reasons:
1. less likely to get paint damage from someone hitting the car with their door
2. I like the exercise of walking!!
3. There could also probably put forth some sort of arguement about saving gas, if you park closer to where you came from (drive less distance), but lets not get too carried away!
I hardly use my car anyway, I walk to downtown or else cycle to places further away.
Thanks for a great read.