Biggest hazard and hinderance? Other drivers.

[evilskillit]

Aside from being annoying in general, doing things like sitting for 30 seconds at a green light while you coast up behind them expecting them to have already moved, behavior of other drivers, especially around rush hour is the biggest impediment to trying to drive in an MPG friendly manner.

Today on my way home from work someone passed me on the right shoulder of the 2 lane highway for doing 60mph in the right hand lane of a 65. Honestly I'd be afraid to try to drive the way some of you describe. I'm afraid I'd be shot at sooner or later. This isn't the first time I've been passed on the shoulder on a multi-lane road for going slow in the right hand lane. I'm all for stretching my pennies to their limits, but sometimes I worry.

[Olympiadis]

I think that's just natural selection trying to work. It's probably best just to observe and don't interfere.

I know what you mean though.
I think the %FAIL goes up exponentially with population density.

[RobertSmalls]

Yep, the signs say "Maximum Speed Limit: 65", but that's not really the truth. It's more like minimum speed limit 65, maximum 75. Then there are the 55 and 50mph six lane expressways in more densely populated areas, where you're a hazard if you're not speeding, and there are folks who do PSL + 20 all the time and pretty much get away with it.

I'd like to see the speed limits universally raised 10mph, then literally enforced. You should come to expect citations and convictions as a matter of course if you speed, and they should lower the penalties dramatically to match the crime. Don't they have something like that in England?

No matter how dedicated you are to saving money and fuel, there's someone out there more dedicated to getting there fast or having an invigorating drive. Leave them room to pass, or at least don't be the slowest guy on the road.

[evilskillit]

Yeah, I'd be pretty content to just "let them fail" but I'm afraid they might decide to include me in their fail. This guy ran over some chunks of old semi truck tire tread and fragmented them, he swerved a bit and some of the pieces flew at me. It was sketchy.

As for speeding up for him, it was up hill and there was traffic all around, there were several people in the left lane going a bit faster than me that he could have gotten behind, but there were a few car lengths in front of me too. So he managed to get in there and be 30 feet closer to his destination than he was before, woohoo! I could have sped up, but it wasn't really called for in this situation.

I understand somewhat. I love speeding as much as the next guy. But I also like saving money and I really don't like the sort of load I have to put my car under to really go 80 or 90, it feels like I'm abusing it. And if you're going to abuse your car you might as well just enjoy a spirit jaunt from 0-60 or a really hard turn. (or some autocross). Plus there is something a bit zen about getting really good economy and just getting there when you get there. But yeah, on my main daily commute, to and from work I really can't go too far below the posted speed limits or P&G much. If I did people would just pass me and fill in in front of me making me just have to stop anyways, heh.

[Olympiadis]

There's a rule here in the midwest where you're required to tailgate closely, or risk having someone cut in front of you creating an even more dangerous situation.

Where I live it's completely legal (I can show you the law) to run through red lights that have just turned red. This creates enough fail by itself, but also makes your hypermiling timed for lights at an intersection to be rather unpredictable.
People have learned to not even slow down for a light turning red, or if they're trying to turn they just drive to the center of the intersection and wait, then make their turn while they have the red light.

This rule falls under "ownership of lane", which gives right of way.
I'm sure some really choice pieces of thought went into making this rule for us locally. I guess some people just can't imagine other humans being resourceful enough to find ways to take advantage of and abuse the law.

[evilskillit]

Heh, they must have something like that in KS. I live right by state line but in MO. Here when a light turns red the other light turns green almost immediately. In KS when a light turns red you can count one onethousand, two onethousand, three one thousand, at least before the other turns green. In that time usually 3 people will run the red light. I'm not sure which came first, the chicken or the egg but either way, they know that they have a good 3 seconds of red before the other cars even move. Occasionally when I misjudge a light and the yellow is shorter than I think or I'm not traveling as fast as I think and it changes red as I blow through it I'll usually pump my fist in the air and say "Woo, Johnson County!" or "When in Kansas..." Tho I do my best not to end up in that situation to begin with.

But yeah usually after keeping 1.01 car lengths open in front of myself and having that space constantly get dived into I'll eventually just take it down to 0.95 car lengths, sadly I think its safer in low speed rush hour traffic.

[Piwoslaw]

Yeah, I can never understand why I'm not the only driver on the road...

Originally Posted by Olympiadis

I think that's just natural selection trying to work. It's probably best just to observe and don't interfere.

I'd like to see natural selection without crumple zones, seatbelts and airbags. Maybe the car's electronics should disable all safety devices when a road violation is detected?

[VegasDude]

The biggest impediment to my driving right now is ever increasing construction on my primary route to and from work. Also, it seems like construction on other roads is pushing more people onto my route as well. When before I knew exactly what speed to accelerate to in order to make the next light is no longer the case because too much traffic has backed up. I've been trying to find a route around some of the most congested areas, but nothing is offering any improvements. I shouldn't complain when I can still get 50 MPG round trip. But I could be getting 53!!!

As far as other drivers getting in the way, the real problem is me trying to piss off people as little as possible. I could coast all the way to the red light and never touch my brakes, but I normally go a little faster than necessary so the person behind me doesn't go crazy. It's really tough for me to accelerate when I know I'm only going to be braking ahead, so I'm constantly try to trick people into thinking I'm turning right so they pass me.

[tumnasgt]

Trucks are what scare me most, they go right up behind me, and sit about 3feet off my bumper at 90km/h, and because they are so close, they can't see when my brake lights come on. I push the brake pedal so the lights come on for tailgaters, and if they don't back off, I start slowing down. My record is slowing down to 40km/h so the following distance was safe, turned out that guy was even towing. I think my first ecomod will be a "SLOW VEHICLE" sign on the back of my trunk.

I've decided I'm going to start filming my drives, so I can look back on what I'm doing well/not so well, and then when I see really scary things, I can contact the cops (who are open to driving complaints from the public).
A few months ago this was in the papers here: Truck cameras capture appalling driving | Stuff.co.nz
There's a page of some of the videos captured here: Drivecam - videos - the-press | Stuff.co.nz

[evilskillit]

Heh, I like the "slow vehicle" sign. Tho I wonder if it would actually help or just antagonize people more.

As for the whole construction thing, yeah I've got that issue too. Every highway around my house is under construction to some degree forcing a lot more people onto my alternate side road rout. Then a major exchange which connects the south and east parts to the west part of the city collapsed and is closed for another 2 months, that is making the problem even worse. Doubly so considering the west part is where I, and most other people work, but do not live, heh.