Quote:
Originally Posted by Fat Charlie
Miles spent testing is just as legitimate as miles spent doing anything else. Driving myself to somewhere I want to go isn't any better or worse than driving myself because there's something I want to do while driving.
Testing may not "pay off" in that you aren't getting anything "useful" out of that driving and it affects your overall average, but it's data collection. If you want to collect data, the driving is just as useful as any other trip that you want to make.
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You know, I've been thinking about what you said, and it reminds me of something the president of an amateur experimental rocket club once told me. I was all dissappointed because of a recent failure to launch. And he said, "Around here, you should not look at it so much as "success" or "failure", but more as "results". Since then, I've always thought that was a good way to look at lots of things. As long as we pay attention and learn something, whatever happens becomes a "lesson" - we learned the "results". Even my driving around after my errands to increase my average mpg for the tank was a lesson; it showed me how fast (or slowly) the average mpg rose with steady "best mileage" hypermiling AFTER a few miles of "bad" mpg due to stop-and-go city driving with lots of stops & parking.
In the long run, it may very well cause me to use less gas, because I will "know what I'm doing" during those city errands, thus maybe minimize them, or "bundle" them all for a trip on the 50cc scooter, etc.......