Advice on rolling stops or full stops
 

In the last month or so I have doubled down on my---well its not really hypermiling, because I don't do all the dozens of tips listed at the 100 tips link at the top, but I was able to get 26.1 on an out of town freeway trip, in a new to me 2006 Highlander Hybrid, when the adjusted freeway EPA MPG was 25. So I am doing well in remedial Hypermiling 101.

At any rate, I have noticed in the last month, that I've also been doing a lot more of what I call the California Rolling Stop, instead of a full stop at a sign.

What is the experience & advice of people here? Do you folks do this, or do you come to a full stop, even when there is nobody there? Or do you work on a compromise, like a full stop for a split second, before moving on? I don't know if that would require any less gas, than emerging from a full stop for 3 full seconds, which is how I learned to stop in drivers ed way back when.

A stop sign is a stop sign. It's there for a reason.
In my opinion, safety goes before saving a drop or two of fuel.

I roll when I'm in the middle of nowhere. YMMV

How much does a ticket for running a stop sign cost?

Never got one. I dunno.

Unless your rolling stop is at 15 miles per hour, it's not going to save that much fuel. Do I rolling stop? Perhaps very slightly sometimes but I'm very nearly stopped, and that's more to do with not wanting the full "jerk" of stopping and to save a second, not to save fuel.

If you've got a hybrid it's already recapturing some of that stopping energy.

Failing to obey a traffic control device (stop sign) is a hefty ticket compared to speeding, and is seen as way more serious.

If my engine's running I'd rather come up from 1 than from zero.

A nearly compliant rolling stop is a good, solid deceleration to the line with an extra push on the brake at the line to give the car more decel and a dip. With the dip it noses down and rocks back. At a low enough speed it looks good and conserves half a smidgen of momentum.

If my engine's off, I bump start as part of coming to a halt, give the engine half a moment to realize it's awake and then move on.

If I can conserve enough momentum to stay out of 1st gear at intersections without dropping the RPMs below idle, gas is saved. Seems pretty simple.

I almost always come to a full stop. Only times I skip it are when people are racing up behind me, threatening to rear end me. I'll pull away about 3/4 of a second after stopping. If you stop and wait for 3 seconds people here in Georgia will honk the **** out of you and/or crash into you.

It definitely doesn't help my mileage having to get the 3300 lbs rolling from 0, but it does help in not getting tickets. You never know when a cop may be watching. 0 tickets in 6 years and counting. I have had police threaten to throw me in jail, and falsely accuse me of "stopping traffic and drag racing" when I had a motorcycle break down on a road without a pulloff, but that is a little different...

The only time I got tagged was when I sawed through a chicane that had a stop sign at either end. I was only watching out for safety, not watching out for everywhere that had line of sight on me.

That was not hypermiling and nowhere near a rolling stop. It wasn't quite drifting either, but...