Encountered a fellow urban coaster yesterday

[JethroBodine]

Ha, I thought of this thread immediately.

[ever_green]

i see some around all the time but their not too good. for example sometimes when im approaching an early red light i go on the brakes at first to lose speed then i let go and coast. this way by the time its green im at a respectable speed. sometimes one of these guys just coast without brakes and end up stopping or losing speed to around 5mph until green. they also pull off very slowly whilr i briskly accelerate to speed limit. it really pisses me off if they are in front of me lol.

[HydroJim]

One time last year I was driving to a baseball game and I noticed a guy in a car driving in the right lane going 55 in a 65. I wasn't sure if he was just driving slow or not, and since I was going to same speed, I watched him for a while. Sure enough, he was speeding up going down hills and slowing down going up them. It was the only time I've seen someone else hypermiling.

[dongs]

Every so often while stopped at a long light I'll hear someone else's engine start a few seconds before the green. More commonly I'll see another car coasting along slowly to a red light.
I had a guy in a commercial van behind me lay on his horn when I was doing that the other day. I think they call that 'hurry up an wait'

[Fat Charlie]

It's not his gas and he's getting paid by the hour. When he gets to the light he gets a little break- shift into park and take a rest.

[slowmover]

Originally Posted by JethroBodine

Today, I coasted up( down really) to a stop light in the right lane with a Volvo 18 wheeler in the left lane, when I heard the driver of the truck shut off the engine and set the emergency brakes. The light had just turned red as we approached and it is a fairly long light, but I've never heard of a truck shutting off the engine at a stop.

That's because my coffee thermos rolled back into the sleeper. Again. And the danged fuel pressure sensor was setting a code. Again. Needs two minutes of engine off to "re-set". After I had my coffee mug re-filled and the light changed, enough time had gone by to get the computer "re-booted".

[serialk11r]

Originally Posted by dongs

Every so often while stopped at a long light I'll hear someone else's engine start a few seconds before the green. More commonly I'll see another car coasting along slowly to a red light.
I had a guy in a commercial van behind me lay on his horn when I was doing that the other day. I think they call that 'hurry up an wait'

When I drove into San Francisco one time, I remember that at almost every light I heard 2 other people starting their engine along with me at the green! That was a good day. However, I haven't encountered anyone doing that for a few months now.

[Prophecy99]

Originally Posted by Sven7

Haha, am I the only one on here that tends to treat empty roundabouts like autocross courses? Outside, heavy on the brakes, downshift, turn in late and gas it like no tomorrow...

There's a highway near me that has several roundabouts in a row, each connected by a quarter mile or so of straight road. I end up jetting through the corners and coasting in between. Figure it probably evens out.

Only ever met one other hypermiler on the road, and the Probe wasn't really even modded much (comparatively) at that point.

Nope I do too ! I love turning aggressively especially ramps etc., and if you coast enough before the turn you don't have to brake at all , and you can accel/coast throughout the turn accordingly.

The best is when you coast enough for the turn you have some typical impatient driver already on your butt who is getting off the ramp behind you also and then they do the typical braking pre turn and you just keep going and eventually gain 3-4 even 5 car lengths throughout the turn.

[pdexta]

Originally Posted by dongs

I had a guy in a commercial van behind me lay on his horn when I was doing that the other day. I think they call that 'hurry up an wait'

Stuff like that drives me nuts. I do my best not to hold anyone up, but people always get upset as I coast to a redlight.

It's always fun when they fly past you so they can stop at the light, then when it turns green they're flooring it from a stop as you coast past them at 40mph.

[plasticuser]

When I am driving in an area where the lights are closer together, I have developed a technique that seems to work better than any other I've read.

I imagine a line on the road halfway between me and the light, and act as if I am stopping at that line. I constantly revise that line so it is always half way between me and the light. I scrub off more speed earlier, and have the most chance of maintaining some momentum through the light. It's a nice form of cadence braking.

Then, when the light goes green, I take my mental note of how stale the next light is, and either continue coasting to the next light, or cadence accelerate to a line half way between me and the next light.

Sounds complicated in writing, but very simple to do.

Well, that's what I do, anyway.