What type of roads do you drive on?

[SVOboy]

It seems like someone magically edited the poll and changed my vote to the first option,

[cfg83]

JacobAziza -

Originally Posted by JacobAziza

Yep, where I am going is different every trip, so no, no real way to optimize.[/I]

Also, around here the streets parallel to the main streets either have speed bumps, stop signs every block, or are actually blocked off to through traffic with concrete barriers.

Rats, that would drive me nuts. I like to say "I am a drop in the river of traffic". When that saying works I can flow *around* the rough spots with minimal MPG loss.

I am not aware of any street in any city near me that has timed lights, and in the downtown areas there are lights every single block.

Early on I had these "magic runs" where I drove maybe 6 miles on Rosemead Blvd without hitting a stop light. I think that happened once or twice total. Also, it changes by city. You cross one intersection and it gets all messed up.

On the freeways traffic slows to full stop and crawl during both rush hours, and often backs up to crawl at random other times as well.

Often, I don't drive home until after 8 PM.

On the plus side, I can easily walk to the grocery, hardware, auto store, taqueria and pizza from my house, and bike to my 2nd job.

I can walk to restaurants from home, but my job is 35 miles away. That's *the* biggest reason I am here.

CarloSW2

[robchalmers]

I drive mainly on motorways daily commute of 34 miles, 22 on the motorway 10 on open singlelane road (60mph limit) and then about 2miles through a town(30mph limit) occassional odd urban runs to the shops that will soon be replaced by runs on the bike

[MetroMPG]

Originally Posted by JacobAziza

It got me thinking (again) about how some people write about techniques like P&G, dwl, dwb (pulse and glide, driving with load, driving without brakes)
I just don't see how it is possible to apply these in the real world, with traffic around.

I can get silly numbers because much of my Firefly driving is on lightly travelled rural highways, so I can do pretty much anything I like, at any speed.

The ForkenSwift gets used in sub/urban driving only, but again I choose lightly travelled routes so I can maximize coasting distance to stops, and accelerating gently without holding up following traffic.

I disagree that you can't use the techniques you listed in the "real" world though. Some more than others - even P&G in "slow & go" type traffic jams would be easy. Driving with load up/down grades will piss people off in heavy traffic, but not if there's a big truck in your lane that is also effectively doing the same thing!

[cfg83]

MetroMPG -

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

...

I disagree that you can't use the techniques you listed in the "real" world though. Some more than others - even P&G in "slow & go" type traffic jams would be easy. Driving with load up/down grades will piss people off in heavy traffic, but not if there's a big truck in your lane that is also effectively doing the same thing!

Yeah, in real estate they say "location location location". In ecomodding I think the corollary is "context context context".

Find the s and start a convoy!

CarloSW2

[Daox]

The majority of my driving is on 2+ lane city and highway roads.

[JacobAziza]

Semi trucks always drive a lot faster than I do
(the limit for them here is 45, but they go 70 just like everyone else does)

[wagonman76]

Most of mine falls into one category (Rural roads / highways (undivided)) even though there is a world of difference.

Halfway to work is 13 miles constantly up and down many steep hills and beat up roads and a few stops. The other 12 mile half (ok almost) is fairly straight, level, no stops, and the expansion joints are fixed at least till winter hits. Usually a ton of traffic during work hours, many times when trying to get on the highway there is a solid line of cars as far as I can see so I just shut the car right off for awhile.

Going downstate is about 70 miles straight down a mostly decent highway with 3 potential traffic lights, and sometimes I take the divided freeway the rest of the way, other than that it is 60 miles of beat up and very hilly side roads. Depending where I have to go, it is decent condition 2-lane rural roads for 20 miles, or sometimes an additional 30 miles of mostly decent 2-lane roads and one dirt track that is barely 2 lanes. Going south I try to go faster because the swarm of tourists are speed demons and I don't want to get rearended. I always get my best mileage coming home on a Sunday night, because all the tourists are headed the other way south, and there are very few other vehicles on the road to deal with and the stoplights have turned to flashing yellow.

[gascort]

I drive 2 miles on 2-lane urban streets with timed lights, then have 10 miles of 4-6 lane 60mph highway to work. Pretty easy commute (so easy that I now bike 1x/week)

[RobertSmalls]

I live within spitting distance of the city line, i.e. in the inner suburbs, in a dense neighborhood just above the poverty line. This location gives me easy access by bike or car to shops and entertainment, and it's a short commute into the wealthy suburb where I work. I like it here, I just wish the neighbors were a little classier.

To answer the question, artierial city streets with thankfully few stop signs and a low speed limit, but a lot of traffic. On a bike, it's bike lanes and side streets. When traffic is light and I'm on the bike, sometimes I take up the right lane of a four-lane road and declare "cars will change lanes to pass cyclists". It works well in the suburbs, but denizens of poor neighborhoods don't respond well to that.

You really can't get to know a place when you're sealed inside a car, whizzing past at 35mph.