[Big Dave]

Let’s face it, we all operate in a couple of different continuums seeking utility, safety, and economy.

Nobody here has taken MPG to the max that I know of. The most energy-efficient type vehicle to move a human along the surface is a powered street luge. The CdA on that is nearly negligible and the weight is almost all that of the driver.

The extreme of the safety continuum would be to hunker in Cheyenne Mountain. That don’t get it either.

We all have to make our choices. Balancing safety/MPG is a matter of the old risk/reward thing. How much risk can you tolerate? How much reward do you need? Even hypermilers get tickets and have wrecks. Their per-mile low is very, very low, but if you drive enough even remote probabilities will catch up with you.

As far as safety, I do believe that damage control on the Titanic starts with “Don’t hit the darned iceberg!” In my case the excellent ABS on the ford did the job. I thought sure I was gonna hit those rubes. I had resigned myself into spinning into them. My old Chevy truck certainly would have but the Ford ABS brought me down fast and dead-nuts straight on a poor road surface. Yeah, I’m an engineer too and I know about F=ma and all that, but the fact is that the Toyota spinning into my lane was unable to get enough grip on the road and he spun. With a half-ton of iron over my front wheels, obviously I did get a grip and stopped.

I do think driver competence is paramount but it is not a fail-safe trump card. I have nearly three-quarters of a million miles under my butt and my insurance company considers me a preferred risk. Obviously, I drive to get good MPG, so I am hardly a speed-demon. But I drive a lot of miles and the law of large numbers is still working.

So I have to strike a balance.

I think ecomodding and hypermiling is good for society as a whole and the big numbers that little cars can rack up provide fine leadership, but it is important to remember that people buy different vehicles for different reasons. To concentrate of squeezing the last MPG out of a Prius (as satisfying as that would be) while ignoring larger cars, van, pickups, etc is an exercise in self-marginalization.

BTW, I do ride a motorcycle – a Honda Valkyrie (whatta gas-hog!), but I don’t ride it in “have-to-get-there” situations. If my butt is on a bike seat, a Bell helmet is on my head. Back in the 70s I trashed a Bell Magnum on a mailbox post and walked away.