[bwilson4web]

In the spirit of the lounge, you' all have missed the metric that explains why the Prius are so much faster than ordinary traffic.

The price of fuel has made it too expensive to choke up the roads with inefficient Subaru GTs, Tempos, F-150s, Sables, GoldWings, Grand Prix, and Canyons. So in desperation, their drivers are forced to use hypermiling driving speeds, driving as slow as possible, and becoming easily passed road hazards.

Thanks to high gas prices, the traffic has thinned out and/or slow enough that Prius drivers can finally cruise at our optimum MPG speeds. After all, gas for us costs half as much as it does for slow-poke hypermiling, fuelish vehicles.

In short, fuelish vehicles can achieve Prius MPG by driving at slow-poke, hypermiling speeds to be passed by Prius. Alternatively, other drivers can match Prius speeds by burning twice or more fuel and drain their wallets, so they stay parked. Regardless, both effects combined to let the Prius drivers apparently travel faster than the fuelish.

Bob Wilson