Does Hypermileing make you a safer driver?

[Thymeclock]

Originally Posted by endurance

While I've always been a pretty safe driver, hypermiling cuts both ways for me. While I do generally keep better following distances and watch further down the road, I also use that following gap as a cushion to avoid braking and sometimes can get rather close to cars if I'm expecting them to resume quickly. I also watch my SGII a little too much and now have a traffic app (Waze) on my windshield mounted Android that serves as a distraction. Add it all up and I'm probably worse off as a hypermiler than I was before.

I agree. All these gadgets are aids to improve your awareness. Over-dependence on them can be a distraction. The best use of them is made when you can predict or foretell what the gauge is reading, and not require your looking at it.

The same is true of any instrumentation. Can you tell when you are going 20 or 30 or 40 MPH without looking at the speedometer? You probably can. That's the desirable goal with the ScanGauge or other instrumentation and fuel economy techniques.

[PaleMelanesian]

My scangauge is mounted on top of the dash above the steering wheel. It's as close to line-of-sight down the road as I can get.

Right on about knowing what it says without looking. You get there after a while.

[mrevo]

I also tend to look far behind to make sure I can let go of the gas earlier.
FYI ScanGauge is used to learn how the car behaves, just look at it for a while to see what are the best behaviors, then just read averages after a trip, day, tank, etc

[JacobAziza]

Totally apart from awareness and driving technique, the simple change of driving slower has a huge impact on safety.

The laws of physics dictate that going twice as fast equals four times the stopping distance, and should an impact occur, twice the speed equals four times the impart force.

Energy=1/2mass*velocity^2

"nearly half (46 per cent) of ... casualty crashes [above 40mph] probably would have been avoided, or reduced to non-casualty crashes, if none of the case vehicles had been traveling above the speed limit. A more conservative estimate, based on calculation of stopping distances and impact speeds, indicates that 29 per cent of crashes would have been avoided altogether"
Speed and Crash Risk - Executive Summary

“When travel speed increases by 1%, the injury crash rate increases by about 2%, the serious injury crash rate increases by about 3%, and the fatal crash rate increases by about 4%"
Traffic Safety Center Newsletter Winter 2008, Volume 5, No. 1: Traffic Safety Culture: the role of speed

I suspect this alone is more than enough to compensate for any increased risk from glancing at a Scangauge or coming up close to stop&go traffic from accordion driving.

[bobstad]

Gotta admit the single greatest koan about an automobile: "the faster you drive them the longer they last" still motivates my habit more than any other.

As applicable to hyper-milage as anything, or more so.

-Calvin "Red" Harrington; diesel mechanic and one-time member of the Miss Exide unlimited hydroplane race boat pit-crew.

[Arragonis]

I wouldn't say it makes me safer directly, but it makes me less stressed which in turn removes the pressure for the 'daily race' which does make me take less risks, which in turn is safer I suppose.

Before HM I would want to be first off a motorway so I didn't get 'stuck' behind the slower car, truck, van etc. So I would pull a typical late lane change or overtake to make sure I was ahead. Nothing 'dangerous' or so I thought but looking back there have been some hairy moments but of course we are all driving 'gods' or "The Stig" are we not ?

Now I don't care, in fact I look for a slow truck or bus to follow on most motorways because it means it isn't me in my small car causing a lane to be blocked, its that large, visible truck in front of me. This helps a lot as most Scottish motorways only have 2 lanes - did you read about the "tight" Scotsman

Not needing to beat someone from the lights removes a lot of stress and being slower means more looking ahead. Quite a lot of the time I arrive at a roundabout last in a queue but because I have judged the traffic well I enter and exit it first.

[bluetwo]

I think using good sense and taking some pride in how you drive makes you a better driver. One of the biggest contributors to safe driving is planning ahead, sometimes way ahead, and thinking about how you're going to handle a situation before it arises. I am COMPLETELY baffled by how many drivers out there never take 10 seconds to try and time their approach to an obstacle like a busy intersection, influx or bottleneck. It's SO easy to time a light so you don't have to jackrabbit yet people genuinely fail to grasp simple concepts like these.

I've driven in almost every state as well as in Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan and Qatar and I can honestly it was a lot of fun. I'm sure a lot of people would stress out in a crowded, busy and unorthodox driving situation but if you just drive it by feel instead of going by how things are supposed to be in some book you'll see there's a rhythm to it.

[Galane]

As US States continue to feel the budget squeeze, I expect the ones with slowpoke sections in their traffic code will finally decide to actually enforce them. In Idaho there are two slowpoke sections. One is on impeding the flow of traffic and the other states if you are holding up three or more vehicles you *must* pull over at the earliest safe location.

Grandmas and self-appointed guardians of public safety poking along 10 or 15 MPH under the limit most likely cause more wrecks than speeders, due to people who just want to drive *at* the limit try to get around the slowpokes, who blissfully drive on past the carnage they've caused.

Worse are the slowpokes who mash the gas to the floor when you try to pass them. Those jerks need to be caught and have their licenses permanently revoked.

[redyaris]

Galane I have some questions:
1. At what speed below the posted speed limit is the 'slowpoke' section of the code invoked?
2. Please provide a referance to a research study that shows slow drivers as a couse of accedents?
3. Please explain how slowpokes can cause accedents before the even get to the site of the accedent "...who blissfully drive on past the carnage they've caused."?
4. Please explain how, a driver passing when unsafe to do so, is the fault of the driver being passed?

[dcb]

slowpokes do not cause accidents, impatient and/or distracted drivers do. If you lose your temper because you feel entitled to never drive under the maximum limit, and you cause a wreck, it is pretty clear who is at fault.

If you lose your temper and piss off the guy in front of you, don't be surprised if he acts like a jerk when you do get a chance to pass. Not saying it is right, just saying that it seems to be a recurring problem for Galane, so maybe another approach is in order.