[bennelson]

Recently, talking to a hypermiler, he implied that keeping the car moving, no matter what, was the SINGLE most important thing to do to increase fuel economy.

I try to time traffic lights as best I can, but I can never get them all.

In my town, the entire downtown was torn up and redesigned and re-paved. Part of the improvements included adding a round-a-bout where a four-way traffic light was before.

In a presentation by one of the city planners, he mentioned how a big part of the round-a-bout was that it would save people gas, by not having to wait at a traffic light.

A while back, I got to visit Scotland. (For work - 3 days total!)
They had round-a-bouts everywhere. Pretty much any place I would have expected to see traffic lights had a round-a-bout instead.

That got me thinking. Fuel is much more expensive in Europe than in the United States. They have many more round-a-bouts there than here.

Is there a connection? Are all those round-a-bouts mostly there to save gas?

Will U.S. road designers start to take this into consideration, to build roads for fuel savings?

We already have seperate ratings for fuel economy of City vs Highway. What's the difference? No traffic lights on the freeway!

If we combined driving slower (less wind resistance) with the no-stopping mentality of the freeway, that's a great way to max fuel economy.

A while back, I was coming home from the city REALLY LATE at night (I think it was a Sunday too!) There was literally zero traffic. I was able to take the mega-boulevard which is usually packed with traffic and lights.

There was no traffic and all the lights were green. I went 40 mph and got the best fuel economy I ever had in that vehicle.

Anyways, traffic circles to fight high fuel prices?

You decide!