Post your commute MPG with elevation change.
 

Since our work commutes take up 90% of our tank averages, I thought it'd be a good idea match the mileage we get to the elevation its driven over. I have now identified a "better" route that gets me several mpg more over the normal route. An even better ecomod than changing the nut behind the wheel, Change the road underneath the wheels!

It can give us a measuring stick to compare our hypermiling to other drivers and also between similar cars.

This is what i have to work with on my commute:
Using Map Bike Rides with Elevation Profiles, Analyze Cycling Performance, Train Better. Ride With GPS free easy to use .

Start Elevation Home 1080 ft
End Elevation Work 701 ft
Minimum Elevation 697 ft
Maximum Elevation 1345 ft
Average Elevation 1023 ft

55mph max speed. average speed guestimate 43mph.
67.5 mpg tank average

To WORK: 74-79mpg
Elevation: + 1001 / - 1390 ft to work
Max Grade 5.8 %
Avg. Grade -0.7 %
http://ridewithgps.com/routes/1446377/elevation_profile
To HOME: 65-72.5mpg
Elevation: +1390ft / -1001ft to Home
Max Grade 7.2%
Avg. Grade +0.7%
http://ridewithgps.com/routes/1527321/elevation_profile

Been trying a new route to work thats a lot slower with the long strecthes of just negative grades working in my favor. I've been able to dramatically boost my tank averages 3mpg over 10% of the tank. I have to clear a FCD trip, but i may be getting up to a 85mpg high on the way to work. 2/5 of the route is now 40mph and below winding backcountry roads.

For comparison Old route vs New: I deleted the MASSIVE mountain hill at the 18 mile mark. Going to work over the hill is pretty good, but climbing going home is Killer. Nevertheless there are overall improvements in both directions.

OLD ROUTE to WORK: 74-79mpg
Distance: 20.5 mi
Elevation: + 1001 / - 1390 ft to work
Max Grade 5.8 %
Avg. Grade -0.7 %
http://ridewithgps.com/routes/1446377/elevation_profile
NEW ROUTE to Work estimated consistent 77.5-80mpg++
Distance: 24.7 mi
Elevation: + 1092 / - 1480 ft
Max Grade 6.0 %
Avg. Grade -0.5 %
http://ridewithgps.com/routes/1446421/elevation_profile

My commute is much less interesting. 95 feet total change in 24 miles. Most all that is spread out evenly (downhill to work). I've always done much better going to work than coming home. While I suspect the elevation change doesn't help, I suspect driving differences have more to do with it than anything else. I've been improving things recently by being more aware of that.

Use (Map Bike Rides with Elevation Profiles, Analyze Cycling Performance, Train Better. Ride With GPS)

You have to create an account but it's free. It works like google maps, but' it'll give you elevation and most importantly overlay the grade on top of the that. Once you map your route, save it, then go to share on the right hand side of the map and it'll give you a link to your elevation image.

Ok, I gotcha. Sorry, I thought it was free, but you had to use a gps. Great site!

Here's my route (to work, left to right).
http://ecomodder.com/forum/member-di...mmute-work.png

Distance: 25.1 mi
Selected distance: 25.1 mi
Elevation: + 264 / - 402 ft
Max Grade 1.4 %
Avg. Grade -0.2 %

very nice site, this will be handy if the doctor gives me a go-ahead on my cycling this fall

since i do not commute anymore here are 3 of my runs,
one is around the block, 17 miles ,another my test loop of 25 miles and the last my *Grocery store run* of 60 miles . i hope to bicycle the first 2 but always in the machine for groceries.
first 2 are loops , last is out and back

around the block 17 miles 1300 ' elevation gain and loss. max grade 8.3%
http://ridewithgps.com/routes/1528603/elevation_profile

test run. 25 miles 2080 elevation loss and gain max grade 5.8
http://ridewithgps.com/routes/1528501/elevation_profile
60 mile run 3900 elevation gain and loss 5.8%
http://ridewithgps.com/routes/1528582/elevation_profile

i did not include some of my walk/cycle routes but they have 11% grades, cycling up an 11% will teach you about the value of downgearing on the grade vs lugging an engine.

This is my commute, from home to work, left to right (this is such a great toy!).

I don't have a fuel economy readout (OBD1), but I guess it's obvious that, although I don't use much fuel going to work :) I use double on the way home :(

An observation: It doesn't seem to show the actual road height when crossing bridges.
Look at the small dip just after 29.4 km. That's the Nepean River, not the tall bridge that crosses it.

I wonder if it's also reading wrong where the road goes through a cutting?

Yesh, I noticed that too. That little downward spike around mile 9 on my communte is a bridge as well.

No kidding. You need to start doing engine off coasting--you won't even have to start your engine going to work:D

On my drive to work I see about 14 MPG, but about 75 on the way home, mostly due to the Overrun Fuelcut feature on Megasquirt. If the injectors aren't spraying, my wallet is happy.

Edit: Apparently since I am a lurker, I am being punished by not being allowed to post images...

Attachment 11708

The question is would you get better mileage if your commute was level? 44.5mpg round trip is pretty good. Sorta like pulse and gliding the terrain.

You are getting better fuel economy by driving hills, otherwise you are likely doing it wrong.

That's a cool website. I never realized how drastic some of the elevation gradients were.
My normal commute to work - 16.5 miles; 663' net elevation change; 3 stop signs; 21 stop lights; .5957 gallons; 27.7 MPG.

http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...2&d=1350872598

My normal commute home - different route to avoid city traffic - 18.5 miles; -663' net elevation change; 2 stop signs; 9 stop lights; .5 gallons; 37 MPG.

http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...3&d=1350872598

http://i.imgur.com/J90wR.jpg
This is to school, so it's nice and early(cold) in the morning. I don't have concrete averages but I get anywhere from 28-31 (closer to 28-29, 30 if I'm lucky)

http://i.imgur.com/FM5u2.jpg
Coming home is obviously easier, I can get 32-38, usually about 33-35.

One thing this doesn't really take into account for me is that I park in a parking garage, don't have much choice in that matter. That always saps a few tenths from me on my way to school. One thing I've noticed is that since I pumped the tires up to 49 and took the mudflaps off I was able to get 30 going to school on a much more regular basis. It is starting to get colder though so those numbers are starting to recede. I might look into new tires before the snow comes. This is pretty cool though, thanks for the thread.

I can't figure out how to copy and post the map, but here are the stats going to work:

Distance: 15.5 mi
Elevation: + 1444 / - 999 ft
Max Grade: 18.7 %
Avg. Grade: 1.2 %

That maximum grade is a mile or two long at 45 mph and starting at a traffic light that always stops you completely. It crushes FE. Otherwise there are two peaks to negotiate. I can get a 2-mile shorter route, but it gives me a third steep grade to negotiate, with traffic lights all the way up, and all the way down. Nonetheless, on good days when the lights don't get in the way too badly I get over 60 mpg on this route--and over 70 coming home.

Distance: 21.0 mi
Elevation: + 3183 / - 2097 ft
Max Grade
13.2 %
Avg. Grade
0.5 %

Looks like I get more elevation changes than most. ;)

For fun i decided to see what a trip to florida would be like. Thats 35,000 feet in elevation gain and loss! Like climbing and descending mount Everest (6.6miles up and down). All of this takes place between 0 and 1,345 feet over 1,300 miles, but all those minor ups and downs on the highway add up even with.1% average grade. We really do live in an imperfect world!

Minimum Elevation
-1 ft
Maximum Elevation
1345 ft
Avg. Grade
-0.1 %

56.6 miles, ~15' elevation change overall (but 2202 up and 2224 down), maximum grade 9.1%, 7 stop lights, 1 stop sign.

I never realized the two smaller hills (just to the left of the big peak) were the same order of magnitude as the other peak at 15.9 miles.

Your challenge now is to try to alter your commute to delete those hills. Even if those hills at 15.9 and 40 miles aren't that tall, the grade is way to steep and your losing good mileage going up them. Besides max grade, average grade is a key factor. Even my -.7 average grade to work makes a 13mpg difference one way.

In my commute i go for the least elevation gain and the most lost. I have to routes to work, one with long shallow downhills for max mpg. The other is to top off my battery with regen. It's steeper downhills where i couldn't use all the momentum i gain due to speed limits. Probably only a 5mpg penalty.

Too bad fuel economy doesn't work that way. You can't average the averages. 14 mpg one way and 75 mpg the other way does not give 44.5 mpg
i.e.
(14+75)/2=44.5 is the WRONG way to do it

In actuality, you have to divide the total miles driven by the total number of gallons used to find the average.

i.e.
Gas used on the trip there:
(15 miles/14 mpg)= 1.071 gallons used
Gas used on the trip back:
(15 miles/75 mpg)= 0.200 gallons used
Overall gas mileage:
(30 miles travelled)/(1.071 gallons + 0.200 gallons) = 23.6 mpg
Quite a bit of difference.

Which brings an interesting point: This shows that having a large elevation change that significantly affects gas mileage actually does hurt pretty significantly over the round trip when compared to no elevation change. You may get great numbers one way, but overall the fuel economy suffers.

Sorry about rambling on. I'm quite a math nazi, and this is one of my pet peeves.:o

Okay, now i'm thoroughly perplexed why the two ways of calculating give completely different answers! This is gonna trouble me all day now. :(

EDIT, Okay, this fit's into my assumption that if you get 15mpg going uphill a 1 mile hill, and then coast all the way down with the engine off getting INFINITE mpg for 1 mile, then the most you can gain is double the mpg you had going up, which is 30mpg. But shouldn't mpg be a metric of volume used over distance already?

Which in a hybrid, electricity is always used going up hill, so your recoverable mpg going back down hill is potentially greater because the mpg going up is the factor that will double ideally?

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I think it makes more sense when you look at speed.
If I drove 30 mph for the first half of a 30 mile trip, and 15 mph for the second half, my average speed is NOT (30+15)/2= 22.5 mph.
Instead, it took half an hour for the first half and an hour for the second half, so you're average speed is actually:
(30 miles)/(1.5 hours)= 20 mph.

The key is in the denominator you cannot add 30 mph to 15 mph, because even though the miles driven is consistent, the time taken is not. You have to find the least common denominator to add them together.

However,
If I drove 30 mph for 2 hours and 15 mph for another 2 hours.
(30 mph+15 mph)/2= 22.5 mph does work because the denominators (time) are the same.

You can check that:
(60 miles driven + 30 miles driven)/4 total hours= 22.5 mph, which is the same.

So yes it would make sense to switch to (fuel used/mile) since our commute distances generally stay the same. A one mile road tends to not change in size from day to day. What a strange world that would be.

About the hybrid scenario,

Yeah. The idea is to use as little fuel as possible up the hill, because that is where your losing the vast majority of your fuel economy. That is just one of the advantages of having a hybrid.

Amazing site! I foresee a tool to calculate the best MPG routes with this info + speed limits (user entered), stop signs etc.

Orignal Route to work..

http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...5&d=1352104997

I always get a tiny bit better on the trip to work, I can see why now... I'm going down hill the last 40% of the trip ^.^, need to cut that dang hill out of the middle... lets see the 2nd route I found lately..

http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...6&d=1352104997

Yea.... MUCH better looking.. too bad it is right though town....

I need to learn how they pull that info from google maps so I can figure in where stopsigns, traffic lights, etc are at.


Must.... find.... better.... route....

EDIT:

I'm a computer nut... you should download the images instead of linking direct to the site, I can view the routes etc with a small url edit.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/41190821/misc/commute1.jpg

And no real alternate routes.

15 red lights in 20 miles, 25 possible stops including stop signs.

only 200ft elevation between top and bottom isn't terrible. I've learned that the biggest factor is the grade, which you can view on the website. The maximum negative average grade. Hills that aren't too steep, followed by long shallow negative grade just enough to keep momentum are ideal.

Everyones graph has a different scale with regard to elevation. Even if it looks terrible, they don't scale distance in miles to "look" equal in regard to feet of elevation.

Here is mine, if it will work. This is my main commute, I also have a much shorter, 9 mile trip to school. Which makes up usually a little more than half my tank, and this is my other half of the tank.
Distance: 54.1 mi
Elevation Change: +1902 / -2517 ft
Max Grade: 4.6%

<iframe src="http://ridewithgps.com/routes/1870161/embed" height="500px" width="100%" frameborder="0"></iframe>

Hmmm.. I can't get the imagine to show up

~6 miles to work with about equal hilling in both directions.

To Work:
http://i.imgur.com/Q5qxpEk.png
To Home:
http://i.imgur.com/uLck8YF.png
To Home (Alt):
http://i.imgur.com/SvzgyuG.png

I have an alternate home route because the regular one is about 3.5 miles shorter, but it involves a much steeper gradient and in bad weather conditions (ice and snow) it just isn't safe to drive.