Quote:
Originally Posted by Frank Lee
Newhaven: if passers executed their maneuvers smoothly it wouldn't be so bad. Many don't. As noted, even on a 4-lane people will come barrelling up behind you and at the last second either slam on the brakes or swerve around, even if the left lane is clear. Why? I think cell phones have a lot to do with it. 
Even, as you describe, if on a 4-lane people "slow", they only do it next to and behind you; then they accel back up to where they were. |
You're spot-on re: cell phones. I don't know how all those people talk on the phone without crashing. I get so annoyed when I see someone tailgating me and yakking away, because they're putting my safety on the line.
I suppose the question becomes this: If you can get most people to slow down around you, and only some of them fly wildly around you, then does hypermiling save gas in a macro sense? I'm not sure there's a way to weigh one vs. the other, because it has so many variables. You have to take into account whether drivers brake hard behind you and accelerate hard to get around or whether they just merge left and go around a bit faster, how many people are on the road, whether they drive faster once they get ahead because they feel they "lost time" by driving slower, how many lanes there are, etc.
Sometimes people just sit behind me and match my speed, which I think is wicked cool, because then no one can rear-end me if they're distracted with their cell phone, and it just makes me feel less nervous than people speeding right up to my back bumper and then moving.