Tailgaters - How to hypermile?

I just watch the news. I don't take statistics. I don't make notes. If you say it isn't daily, then OK. I don't argue that point. I just say that it happens too often. In my opinion a honking horn or tailgater is not road rage, and I never said it was. Please tell me where I said that. But even if it is, that would be my opinion. So, somebody can't have an opinion different that yours? And if that opinion is different than yours, that person need counceling? Geez.

If getting out of the way of a tailgater isn't A solution (even when in the right lane), then what is YOUR solution. You still haven't said. And by the way, if you say the solution is to stay in the lane, you might be causing trouble, not avoiding it.

Dumb Mike

 

I'm a seasoned urban commuter and am amused that I could be reading this thread on a motorhome forum.

My "other Prius" is a 27 foot Lazy Daze manufactured in the LA area. I have a coworker that calls my Lazy Daze that name, so I adopted it.

Most of the perceived rage that you think is specific to the Prius is in your head. I notice the same amount when driving the motorhome and even more in the past when I was a more aggressive driver.

Okay, I can still be fairly aggressive in the Prius when I want to. But overall, the car calms me and encourages me to slow up some, which is a good thing. When I slow up, not that many cars pass me. Like has been said, I catch up with them at the next light.

 

personal safety trumps mpg every time. it is important to stay with the flow of traffic. people who drive too slow in any lane are a hazard. my advice is, if you are on the interstate or other multi-lane road, go with the flow. it will pretty much eliminate the tailgating situation. save the hypermile techniques for when it's a safer situation. i love to go electric, but only when there's no one behind me.

 

The average 0 to 60 time in 1980 was 15 seconds - now it's under 10 seconds.

So we just go with the pack faster and faster and faster? Do you really appreciate the wisdom of the pack leaders?

 

I avoid being in the pack when I can. I prefer to be ahead of it. After many years of motorcycle riding I learned that it is safer to be faster than the pack than slower. If traffic is light I will take it easy.

 

I think a lot of the opinions in this thread are subject to local traffic trends and may not reflect experience in other areas of the country where traffic conditions could be considerably different.

 

And in case nobody believes me or the above, just this past Saturday, a man was shot and killed on the 105 freeway in Los Angeles in what is being called road rage. You can do the search if you wish.

Though traffic patterns and practices differ throughout the country (and world for that matter), I only suggest that you try to avoid road rage, wrongfully perceived or otherwise. If you don't, maybe you shouldn't drive on the Los Angeles freeways.

Dumb Mike

 

Best nugget of advice yet in this thread.

 

Better yet, never go outside of your undergound bomb shelter for fear of, well, everything and everyone! Earthquakes, hurricanes, germs, and DumbMike. Howard Hughes here we come!

 

Watching the news will give one a very distorted view of the world. News reports are not a representative sample of the real world, but are instead sensationalized stories designed to draw readers and viewers, all in the interest of making money. Our world, when viewed through the eyes of the news, is a horrible place, filled with evil people and unimaginable risks. They do exist, but mercifully they are very, very rare.

My email inbox is a good example of this effect. If I were to form my self image based on my email, I would conclude that I am in debt, under endowed, and in desperate need of pharmaceuticals to please my lady.

Tom

 

Also note that reporters have been downsized, esp the print media. The temptation to sensationalize is there.

Back in the summer of 2008, I lost count of reporters throwing hypermilers under the bus, putting in unverified opinions as fact. They made it seem tailgating 18-wheelers was as commonplace as texting while driving, so why have they not reported a hypermiling death?

 

Dumbmike, the story you're referencing is a tragic and brutal one involving (apparently) a woman shooting a man while driing due to her road rage. He was diving his wife and 2 kids. He managed to pull the car over and tell his wide he'd be ok before passing away.

now, I'm not saying road rage is make believe. I AM saying that road rage happens a lot less often to people who are literally minding their own business driving at a reasonable (albeit slow by LA standards) speed than it does as a result of aggressive drivers getting into it with other I'll tempered drivers. Basically what I'm saying is, rage turns to aggression when the situation is escalated somehow. Minding your own business going at your own speed (not deliberately being slow to "piss off the gas guzzlers" ) won't get you killed. It won't.

 

If I recall correctly, defensive drivers class recommends gradually slowing down and the tailgater will pass?

 

I really can't figure out why road rage happens. I think it has to do with at least one really stupid driver (but I'm also sure it doesn't require two stupid drivers). It really doesn't make sense to me. My basic point is that you should drive in a manner so other drivers won't get mad.

However, your statement that "Minding your own business going at your own speed (not deliberately being slow to "piss off the gas guzzlers" ) won't get you killed" isn't quite correct. This because from the perspective of the road rage driver, whether you are minding your own business while driving slow, or to piss off the gas guzzlers, they are indistinguishable. So, if driving slow to piss off the gas guzzlers can get you killed, so can minding your own business while driving slow.

And in case anybody cares, I believe there is about 1 freeway shooting per month in Los Angeles. Again, that is too many.

Dumb Mike

 

As a 90 mile a day commuter on LA freeways, I see almost every kind of driving, most of it dangerous, and people with incredibly poor judgement. The best rule I can give, is to go with the traffic flow. If there is nobody behind you, slow down all you want. Remember, the bigger gap you leave in front will probably be filled with 4 or 5 cars, in no time. If the traffic is moving at 75, do 75, or get out of the way. If you feel like slowing down, try another route, but don't be a rolling speed bump, or you will be treated like one. I haven't had a speeding ticket since 1979, get over 45 mpgs driving my Prius like a "regular" car. Last word: go with the flow. Its a herd mentality, the slower ones get picked on, and maybe culled from the herd. Natural selection.

As for guns, don't get me started, cars can be deadly enough.

As an LA native, I really resent people carping about "LA" drivers, this and that. Most people who drive in LA are neither LA natives, or drivers that we would claim as "ours".

 

I don't think it's about the driver being stupid or not. It's the driver being triggered into a temporarily insane state of mind. No sane person would wield a gun shooting people on the street unless that person is insane. Same for drivers. Somehow the "muscle" image of their car projected into their psyche and turned them into monsters, literally.

I keep telling here, if you normally don't confront a mental patient wielding a weapon on the street, why on earth do you delibrately agitate an insane tailgater wielding a deadly weapon, namely his car, and/or possibly his gun.

Normally these monstrous conversions happen to male drivers only because of testostorone. The fact that it was a woman driver who shot another driver proves my point: they're crazy, literally, although temporarily during the duration of the road-rage. Nothingtheless, DON'T FIGHT WITH CRAZY PEOPLE, PEOPLE, OR YOU ARE CRAZY TOO!

 

I don't recommend fighting them, but neither do I think caving in is the solution.

Let em pass.

Report them to the police if necessary.

They are not literally stupid, but they are so overcome with emotions, etc they effectively are.

 

There is active fight, and then there is passive fight, like deliberately braking repeatedly to slow down yourself and thus the tailgator too, hoping he gets your message and pass you. However, traffic conditions may make it difficult for him to pass 'cause the next lane is very busy so he becomes super-angry by your passive agressive action. Eventually he'll pick a very small window in the next lane and floor his gas paddle and swerve around and comes right back into your lane in front of you and brake hard scaring the hell out of you then floor the gas again and disappears. That's the best case scenerio, people! Else, you do the imagination.

I'm saying they're not literally stupid, they're literally INSANE! Calling them either literally or effectively stupid DOES NOT make it ok to agitate them more.