MMPG = Man-miles per gallon
 

I've noticed that there isn't much discussion around how to get even better use out of the stretched fuel we burn. We talk about best routes, how to feel when the fuel injection drops into lean burn mode, tire pressure...but precious few ever mention making the car work twice as effectively by carrying another person.

One thing I've always done is try to make the best out of a bad situation. Can't help but burn up some dinosaurs, so I might as well move as much as I can while the stego goes up, right? So in one trip, drop the kids at college, drop the wife at her job, head on to work.

Obviously there can be complications: "Whaddaya mean you're puking orange? Orange, for real? Okay, I'll come get you." And depending on where you work this isn't generally an option. But my employer and my wife's employer are both very cool with unplanned vacancy, when things pop up, go deal with it. But we drive way fewer miles than we might otherwise because we're all sharing a ride.

Lately I've got one boy going to one school and the other to another...but the younger lad, now that the weather is cooled off a bit, insists on taking the truck to school because it gets better mileage. "And it's older than me. That, the manual and the cancerous paint give it a certain badass-like presence." Well, the kid's 19 after all.

So with three of us riding together, the older kid, the wife and myself, we're whistling up about 146 man-miles per gallon, which is bumping hard up against the loftier single-seat ultralight economobility pods being trundled out for consideration.

Really. This is the original and still most effective form of hypermiling. Why is it so unpopular?

I guess that depends on how much seatbelt use is enforced.

We used to ride nine-up in a ratty old Corolla (the 70's coffin-on-wheels, not the bigger front-wheel drive ones that came later). That's got to be a kajillion mmpg.

All of it, all the time. I'm afraid I don't fully understand your statement.

If there isn't a seatbelt, you don't ride. If you ride, you wear the seatbelt.

I always considered the '78 Corolla liftback - not the hatchback or wagon - to be one of the prettiest cars out there. Like a Volvo PS1800, but a little taller and ultimately a lot rustier.

I used to ride to rowing practice with a friend in his mom's Chevy Nova *cough* Corolla, five us in that car was full. Putting nine into one sounds like flicking boogers at Death.

Well, yes, that is how it should be, but not everyone follows that, especially in poorer countries, which I guess that you could call flicking... eww... :)

Third world here... happy to oblige! (of course, nowadays, being older, wiser and 100% more alive thanks to seatbelts, I make everyone buckle up)

I vaguely recall it being a four-door, which was the only reason we were able to make that work. When you're in high-school here, just owning a car in the first place is an event. Even a (at the time) twelve year old car that's half-rust.

I too car pool with my girlfriend to work. It works out because she hates to drive. Every morning we swing by and drop off the "child" at school and head to work. Our situation is a little easier than most because we happen to work across the street from each other.

Last year I started working a job on Mt. Rainier, a 60 mile plus one way commute. Turns out one of the other 5 guys lives on the same rural road I do, only 10 blocks away. Go figure!
Of course we commute together. Good man-mileage in a bad situation.

Generally, when I am alone, I ride a bike. When the wife and I go out to dinner we take the Fiesta. The truck sits there waiting for a useful trip that requires it's capacity. We always try to combine trips to minimize distances travelled.

I checked yesterday and the truck has gone 187 miles in 22 days. The Fiesta has gone 270 in 19 days, everything else is on a bike for me at 60+.

regards
Mech