Quote:
Originally Posted by campisi
I drive the speed limit when there is only one lane but when there's passing lanes I'll drop to 5 below. I'm very cognizant of drivers coming up behind me, mergers etc and adjust speeds and lanes to try to make life as comfortable as possible for everyone. I still get people that will fly by me at light speed cuz they were delayed by 1 second to get to the next traffic light.
I notice that I am treated very differently depending on which car I'm driving. I have an old beat up 94 Nissan D21 pickup that I can drive at 55 in a 65 and no one gets pissed but if I try that in my wife's Lexus or my newer more modern looking car people get their panties in a wad. I think they just figure that the old dude who can barely afford to even drive (the D21) has enough problems to deal with - cut him some slack!  |
My rules of engagement are similar:
- On a one-lane road, drive the speed limit
- On a multi-lane freeway, drive 60 MPH in the right most lane
- On freeways, follow a "slow" big rig. (No one bothers me for going slow...)
- On surface streets, I drive the speed limit
- Anywhere where there is no traffic behind me, I slow to 5-10MPH under the speed limit.
When I first really got into hypermiling, I was trying to time it to just roll to a stop as I hit the stop sign or light.. I quickly discovered that people did not like this approach.. lol. I have since migrated to my above approach. It saves me a lot of grief, and possibly, dangerous situations.
Middle fingers and cussing is one thing. Being dangerously passed is another. And having a gun pulled on you is another that I really do not care to have happen.. It hasn't happened to me, but a good friend of mine told me about a scary incident that occurred a few months ago:
He was waiting to turn right on a yield. Someone in an F150 behind him was aggressively inching his truck forward and honking. My friend did not see it as safe to go yet, so he didn't. The guy in the F150 kept honking and creeping forward more and more, and also began yelling at the top of his longs. When it eventually freed up, my friend gassed it (he's not a hypermiler), and at the next light, which is red, a humungous dude in the F150 pulls up next to my friend and is yelling at him and pointing a gun at him. Thankfully, the guy did not pull the trigger.
And with regards to people not tailgating w/ certain car types, I notice that people generally don't tailgate me when I'm driving my parent's SUV or truck, vs when I'm driving my Toyota Matrix. I speculate that a large part of this is due to the simple fact that it's a
lot harder to see around (or through) these tall boxes on wheels, so their chances of rear-ending that vehicle are higher significantly. In my much smaller (and shorter) Toyota Matrix, people can see over/through it much easier...
And I'm guessing you guys have heard of Wayne Gerdes, of cleanmpg.com, who gets 50 MPGs in a bone-stock Honda Accord? I'm guessing he gets a lot of middle-fingers and aggressive passing... I can't picture myself driving similarly.