[Piwoslaw]

You know what I hate?

I hate it when I have a nice good pulse up to the speed limit (or just above), go around a bend in the road, and see a speed limit sign with a lower speed. I go through the bend at 90 km/h and suddenly I have 50-100m to slow down to 50 km/h. WTF, mate? Sure, I can slam on the brakes and slow down, maybe I can even do it in a safe manner, but if I had seen that sign before the bend, not after, then I wouldn't have pulsed from 60 to 90, but instead gently coasted. Umpteen milliliters of fuel gone. Moving that speed limit sign 50m forward wouldn't make anyone late for work, but would help many drivers save fuel.
I've seen "Reduce speed ahead" and "Stop sign ahead" signs in the US, but not all of them were well-placed. Unfortunately, the best I can wish for here is an intermediate speed limit sign slightly earlier, but that hardly ever happens.

So how should traffic signs be placed to aid the hypermiler, maybe even increase safety, while not blocking traffic at the same time? Other than moving speed reductions to more visible places, what about lowering the speed limit on steep hills? In the last week I've seen many places where the speed limit changes from 50 km/h to 70 or 90 at the bottom of a hill, and everyone feels that they are obliged to accelerate uphill, while I'd prefer to keep my speed down until the top of the hill. Similarly, I've seen steep hills with a speed reduction at the crest, as if it couldn't be earlier. In many cases the the climbing speed is lower anyway, because of heavy trucks. A higher speed can be kept if the uphill is right after a downhill, allowing to keep momentum.

Unfortuately, asking whoever is responsible for the road to move the sign only because of potential fuel savings is going to get you laughed at at best.