If I Drive a Prius, Will I need to be a more patient person?

Can't believe you got attacked for this posting. I agree with you 100%. And while the Prius is no hot rod, it has sufficient power to drive "quickly." I'm getting to work sooner with a lot less horsepower mainly because I'm now allowed to use the carpool lane. The only trouble is that driving "quickly" yields me around 45 mpg. I can't imagine how slowly you have to drive to average over 55 mpg!!! But even without the carpool lane I can get through traffic without much fuss. It's a very nice little car. :rockon:

 

0 to 60 in about 9.5 seconds. You will not win any races. I moved from a 5 second 0-60 BMW. The Prius is fun in a different way. It is all about maintaining and managing momentum. In power mode it pulls surprisingly well.

I like seeing 55mpg rather than 85mph

 

That's a beautiful way to put it.

 

65 mph should get you 55 mpg.

 

Yea, but if I go 65 on I10, through the middle of Phoenix, I'll get run over!!! Especially in the carpool lane.

 

When I was a carpool lane regular (before Prius), 60-62 was just fine. A substantial critical mass of us made sure of it, so the few speedballs had to use the regular 'fast' lane.

Not once did a transit bus catch up to us. If we didn't want to go their speed, we just pulled right, into the normal passing lane, and passed them.

 

That doesn't work during rush hour when the normal lanes are always slower than the carpool lane. If I can not keep up with the flow of traffic in the carpool lane then I will pull to the right. I do not want to be one of those Prius drivers that other people hate clogging the fast lanes. Even in a faster car I've always gone by the creed that it's not my job to slow down other drivers. I leave that to the Police or Patrolmen out there.

 

Hmmm, when I was in Phoenix, you couldn't touch 65 on I10 in the middle of rush hour no matter what you tried. It was a freaking parking lot that would move slowly, then up to about 50, back to slow. When I was heading out of PHX to come home, I managed 65 in the regular lanes without any problems. Isn't the speed limit 60 anyway in the city limits on I10?

 

Usually any vehicle towing a trailer is required to stick to the right two lanes and go no faster than 55 mph. I don't think it's universally observed. Trucks that are fully laden will usually not go very fast. You can tell which trucks are empty because they can go 70 mph. It's funny because sometimes I say to myself "that truck is going faster than I want to go".

I don't know if this applies to light vehicles with a trailer. Generally speaking, I am annoyed when a vehicle/trailer combo is in the carpool lane or fast lane because I believe the rule is they should stay in the right two lanes.

Rule of thumb:

# 1. If a big rig is passing me on the right, it's time to speed up.

# 2. If I'm behind the big rig, I either have to accept its speed, or pass.

Basically I want to do my best to keep traffic flowing. Inverting traffic is not useful.

 

Excellent advice!

 

Sorry I wasn't clear. It's only the carpool lane that gets above 65 during rush hour. The normal lanes are slower. The speed limit on I10 in town used to be 55, but they raised it to 65 a while ago. The speed limit on I10 outside of town is 75.

 

I totally agree with green4u. If you need to go that much "faster" then use the fast lane. This would benefit everyone on the road, fast, slow, and in between "speeds."

 

I have become a much more patient driver with my Prius. Less concerned with speed and more concerned with MPG. I may arrive to wherever two or three min later than before but the gas savings is worth it.

 

And you arrive much less stressed out. That is important for your health and the safety of others. I raced cars for nearly 2 decades and I have to say that the Prius is so much more relaxing to drive.

 

Wrong question. The right question is:

If you drive a Prius, will you NOT become a more patient person?

 

You should rent a Prius for a week......it will make you want to be a better driver.....slow & easy saves you money......now how can you beat that !!!!!!

 

I haven't read the whole thread, sorry - so I might repeat somebody else's answer/tips/comments.

To answer your question directly - in absolute terms, no (if you keep in mind it is not a car made for racing...). Depending on the car you had before and with what transmission, maybe.

I would try the Prius first and set it to PWR mode and see if you like the way it handles your "impatience". If you like it, go for it.
Then what will happen is that because the MPG will be good, you will start a game with yourself called "how low can I go" and you will be here asking for tips on how to increase MPGs... if that equates to be "more patient" I don't know.
What got me "more patient" was getting a navi like the Go Live series from Tomtom, which showed me that "rushing" it usually will save me 1-2 mins at most on a 30 min commute, while consuming much more and getting home/at work way more stressed....
Tips on saving fuel on the Prius (and well, on most other cars) you can find it in several threads here or also here:
Tips & tricks for the “normal” driver to achieve satisfying fuel efficiency on the Prius Gen 3 « Prius 3 experiences from Europe