10 car convoy following as I drive 50mph
 

A fuel economy gauge has helped me to determine that the sweet spot for my Tercel is around 50mph. When I'm humming along in 5th gear driving this speed other drivers tend to pile up behind me. I try to ride the white line and encourage them to pass, but I still get as many as 10-15 cars behind me at times and they all seem to be in a hurry. Today was one of those days. I imagined the other drivers feeling agitated about being held up. But rather than giving in to the pressure to speed up myself, I realized that by driving 50mph I had increased the efficiency of the entire fleet of vehicles behind me. This was an amusing thought, that my desire to drive more efficiently was rubbing off on other drivers whether they liked it or not. Each one of those cars behind me not only benefited from the slightly reduced speed but also from the draft created by the other vehicles in the convoy. With all the vehicles combined I wonder how much fuel was saved...:rolleyes:

It doesn't seem to matter what speed I do...10 under, right on, 10 over...they pile up behind me, ride my ass and half don't bother to overtake when a passing lane appears.

Welcome! What info are you getting from Fusion, how do you have it set up?

I don't know if being behind you helped those 10 cars' mileage much. There was probably a lot of accordion action going on back there as people thought someone ahead might be going faster for a moment. On and on and on.

The way I see it, I've already got a job and it doesn't involve worrying about them. They can pass me if they want, but there's going to be another car or combination of cars just a bit ahead- that's why they generally don't pass, even though they want to push you to go faster.

It's truly amazing how little you can change your commute time by being in a hurry. Don't "help them out" by demonstrating this, just do your 50, get your numbers and live your life. Do keep coming here to talk about your numbers, though- we care about them. :)

Yeah, and somebody didn't get to see their dad before he died, thanks for being selfish.

Similar experience here, except when I go 55, people seem to stay behind me and never pass, but if I go 62+ they will pass at will.

Speeds above 50 MPH are usually worse aerodynamically-wise. Maybe some of those drivers got amused by that subtle fuel-efficiency increase :D

60-mph is the wall. Test it. And correlate against the engine hours for just that drive on just that road. What's the annual percentage difference? Cold cash savings.

It's not enough, is it, to justify being 10-15/mph slow on a metro road?

That car is tiny. Not worth the risk.

Besides, if one wants bragging rights about FE that's a matter of loading the vehicle to maximum vehicle manufacturer weight number. Then bringing the average high. Make this something other than a stunt. Make it about skill.

Skill is in understanding that highway MPG is not high. Steady-state is high. So the test is in bringing town mpg close to country mpg. Empty and loaded.

If one sees 40-mpg average over 10k (250-gl) then the annual fuel bill at $2.50/gl is $625 . At 30-mpg (333-gls) it's $835.

Run at a higher speed. 59-mph won't change that $4/week "savings" enough to matter. Because the annual average wouldn't change that much. Focus on the 80-gals, instead.

The annual average is gallons consumed against engine hours. High average mph wins.

Keep the risk low, is the first priority. Second is component longevity. FE is last. It's not a "win" worrying over 47-cents per day when what's least important is made first.

.

And you don't have the common (ok, not so common :-() courtesy to pull over and let them by? When one of those people stuck behind you is having a really bad day, succumbs to road rage, and puts a couple of bullets through your rear window... Well, if I'm on the jury, he'll get off with justifiable homicide.

So some gun toting psychopath's right to travel at his preferred rate of speed is more valuable than my right to... travel at my preferred rate of speed? Awesome. Pull a gun because you didn't want to leave 5 minutes earlier.

I'm not trying to prevent anyone from doing what they want, but if I happen to simply be on the road ahead of someone their rush isn't my problem, it's just traffic. Pull that $#*+ in the grocery checkout sometime: we're all doing the same thing, but you're in a hurry? I'd apologize for simply being ahead of you, but it wouldn't be sincere.

I NEVER travel faster than 50 mph on a two lane road, irrespective of traffic. If the road is quiet and/or there is an opportunity for following drivers to pass I'll quite happily travel at 40 mph.

I don't mind somebody going slow, but around here what drives me crazy is this. They drive that slow speed but as soon as there is a passing lane they temporarily add 10-15 mph to that speed so passing involves something like 85 mph to even get 1/2 The cars by. Then as soon as the lane ends back to the slow. I drive slow as well sometimes and will slow down even more on a passing opportunity to let people by.

I hypermile my Volt every day, and I hypermiled a couple of Insights and a Festiva for years before the Volt, but I don't do it at the expense of all the other drivers around me. And I'll be the first to admit that I'm not above going around somebody doing 10 mph under the speed limit with cars piling up behind them.

I squeeze every mile I can out of my daily EV charge while maintaining enough speed to be as courteous as possible to the drivers around me, and I do very well without making a bad name for hypermilers

It. Doesn't. Work.

There is always another.

And another.

You'd spend all day on the shoulder.

I could go 20 over and someone back there would see me and have to pass. I guess it's a "winning" thing.

I go 50 practically no matter what. The vast majority of the time passing is permitted. So pass when safe or stay back there and get used to it. It's not my fault breeders have filled up the roads so much passing opportunities are not unlimited. I. Don't. Care.

I sure hope I never need the services of a jury of Duhmericans. Oof-Da. :rolleyes:

I set up 3 different dashboards with the Fusion app. On the first page I set up some engine temperature gauges as I was doing some grill blocking experiments with cardboard and wanted to see the difference. Sure enough the engine got hot quicker but the temperature continued climbing and it made me a little uncomfortable... On the second dashboard I just have two simple gauges set up, one to show real time mpg and one that shows total average mpg. The last dash board shows me average mpg per trip.

I don't travel at 50 mph for fuel economy. I have always driven at 50 mph, even in my old Volvo automatic, where fuel economy was the last thing on my mind. Scotland's roads are twisty, undulating, and with no run off area, so you have to be ready for any eventualities. The max permitted speed on any two lane in the UK is 60 mph, and lorries over 7.5 tonnes are limited to a maximum speed of 40 mph in Scotland (with one exception - the A9) and 50 mph in the rest of the UK. There are great lengths of two lane where the limit is 50 for everyone and even a lot of dual carriageway and motorways have a 50 mph limit.

1) You - and everyone else - do have the right to do things which make you a discourteous jackass.

2) Gun-toting psychopaths don't generally care about your rights, any more than a momma bear cares about yours if you get between her and her cubs.

Not the case around here. They have turnouts on the 2-lane roads, with signs saying "Slow traffic must use turnouts" (not that a lot do). So when I go slower than other people*, I can slip into the turnout, let them by, and usually don't even have to slow down much.

*Which is usually the case when I'm driving the Insight, at least uphill, or the truck, 'cause the dog doesn't like sliding around on the bench seat in the hairpin turns. He really prefers to ride in the Miata, though :-)

Well that isn't the case around here.

Since I'M the one operating within the law and those wanting to go faster most likely are not, tell me again about who's being discourteous? :rolleyes:

In MN if there is no posted minimum speed, there is no minimum speed.

There is a statute regarding obstructing traffic flow but it is so open to interpretation as to render it useless (at least, I don't get it).

Had a UPS truck do that to me last night. He out accelerated me when he was in the lane next to me, was going 10 over the limit, then when the lanes merged to 1 lane, he wanted to do 10 under the limit. I got to eat massive amounts of spray from his tires while he took corners like a pansy.

I often set my cruise during passing lanes to ensure that no emotion is involved in the speed I travel. Obviously most everyone else just succumbs to their emotion because 85% of drivers will do well over the speed limit during a passing opportunity, and do well under the speed limit immediately following. Heck, I've had people add 35 MPH just to prevent me from passing only to drop 10 MPH below the limit once I no longer could.

When I get an EV, I'll go as fast as the law will allow me to get away with. Don't really care about EV efficiency as much when it's so cheap, and renewable.

Every time I drive this on the highway I get a parade following me to the store

Me too. It will be full throttle acceleration (full throttle - will that become full potentiometer!) at every opportunity, and 10% over the posted limit.

Until your electric is 100% renewable that's kind of... not right.

Mine is! Burlington VT was actually the first city in the US to go 100% renewable. Vermont as a whole has no fossil fuel power plants, but some parts do buy fossil fuel energy from neighboring states.

Shame it's cheaper per mile to burn gasoline in an Insight than electricity in, say, a Leaf.

Modern cars do have drive-by-wire throttles (potentiometer).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pgln9L5Y7sQ

Not compared to electricity where I live. I pay about 2 cents per EV mile compared to 6 cents for gasoline in the Prius. The Insight might be 4 cents per mile, which is still double my EV rate.

The yellow car above is always driven 100% throttle continuous on the highway

I don’t feel real bad at my 50mph max flat ground speed.

I'm at around 3.2 cents per mile gasoline with gas prices here. It's closer to 2.4 on long trips when I'm driving conservatively, and as high as 4.5 cents per mile for city driving in the middle of winter. Oil changes add a negligible amount to this.

Electricity here is 11c/kwh for the first block, then goes up to ~15, which would be 3.3 cents or 4.5 cents per mile if a Leaf is getting its EPA rated range. I'm unsure if that's before or after conversion losses when charging. I'm also not sure how well a Leaf would do when it's -20 to -40F.

Admittedly though, a Leaf is a much larger vehicle. It's not really a fair comparison, even if I wouldn't ever use the extra space.

As a supporter of responsible gun ownership, I would not be so likely to consider such situation as a "justifiable" homicide.

I sure hope you never need the services of an ambulance operated by Duhmericans, that gets caught behind a long line of cars because some Diapermiler is too stubborn and self-righteous to pull over every now and then.

I used to be a lot more aggressive in my daily driving, but one day I realized that I was arriving at work in a fuming funk every day. So I started giving myself more time to get there, and taking routes that were less popular (read: less traffic) and less likely to raise my stress levels. It was a revelation. I heartily recommend that folks who know they're going to be driving below the prevailing traffic speeds give it a try. Not necessarily as a way to reduce *your* stress but as a kindness to other motorists who are perhaps not as enlightened. I promise not to get upset when I come up behind you. ;)

Duhmericans MIGHT pull over for an ambulance if they're not too busy texting.

Hypermilers- often being hyper-aware- will. :rolleyes:

I think I'm going to have to keep one eye on you.

In the Oregon Coast Range, they slow down for the corners. The corners is where the fun is. :(

You do realize that law and courtesy are not always, or perhaps even often, the same thing? Not to mention honor, justice or simple decency?

As I've already noted, it isn't practical to continuously pull over. Honor, justice, and decency??? ****

Your slicing it pretty thin here.

The first time you said "It. Doesn't. Work." So now are you saying "It. Works. But. It. Inconveniences. Me."?

I don't live where you do. Around here there tend to be a lot of little roads, a result of colonial transportation systems. There are usually dozens of ways for an imaginative and not-in-a-rush person to get from X to Y. I've done some cycling in Colorado and out there it is more like "if you want to go to X there is Highway Y or else you can cut across the mountain on your dirt bike." So not as many choices.

How do you get that out of it? :confused:

IT. DOESN'T. WORK.

Frank Lee — Take deep breaths.

What do I do with 'em once I've got 'em? :p

Worse. He is claiming that some gun toting psychopath's right to murder you is more important than your right to live.

Who needs to breathe deeply? You compare a mother bear's right to protect her cubs and a [would-be] murderer's response to driving they do not like?

What is to stop the gun-toting psychopath from disliking your driving or your car or your haircut or that you got pickles on your burger?

What part of [murderous] psychopath do you not understand?

What is to protect you from murderous psychopaths while the rest of us are exposing ourselves by driving how we feel most comfortable?

Well, that is not as bad an example, but while I have seen atrocious drivers, I have never seen anyone refuse to make way for emergency vehicles. It undoubtedly happens, but if one car in a hundred refuse to move, the emergency vehicles should still get through.

If it happens to you, let us know, and we will chip in for some pretty flowers! :)

By the way, isn't it a law in many places that you need to pull over if there are x cars behind you? As I recall, I determined this is not the law in Arizona, but everywhere I drive has regular places to pass, although cars still cross the double yellow to get around me.

I saw a fire truck (mit blinkenlights) T-bone a Buick in an intersection once.