90+ MPG trips. (Oh, how I love summer fuel mileage!)

As far as I can remember, these are the best results I've ever gotten on individual trips for "normal" (for me) driving -- i.e., not running tests.

First, I drove from my part time job site yesterday evening to the airport to pick up my fiancee, using this route. As an aside, her flight ended up being canceled after she had boarded (mechanical problem) and shortly before I reached the airport. So I ended up on a two-hour (one way) highway trip to pick her up at another airport. But that's a story for another day.

I got as far as a Burger King near the airport, where I got this CAN-View screen shot:



The tank was doing pretty well too:



Unfortunately, because of the unexpected highway run, I couldn't keep the tank above the 70 MPG mark before refueling this morning. It finished at 69.7 MPG. But that's beside the point.

Back to the part time site today. After refueling, using this route, and about three miles before reaching the office:





From there it was a net elevation gain to reach the office, but I still held 90+:





Of course (in the interest of full disclosure) the segment for this morning may be a little misleading. It doesn't include the initial warmup drive and, therefore, begins with a fully warmed ICE. But I enjoyed seeing that 99.9 MPG display with ordinary driving through suburban and urban areas.

It was good to be able to verify that my CV fuel economy calculations were still calibrated pretty closely to what the MFD reports. Interesting that trip mileage was off a little.

EDIT: I just realized that in my attempt to get a decent shot with a cheap camera phone, I got a little too close and the CAN-View images cut off the labels for the third, fourth, and fifth lines. The third line is trip average speed, the fourth is trip average fuel flow in gal/hour, and the fifth (probably obvious) is trip average MPG. The zeroes to the immediate left of the trip numbers are instantaneous readings for the same parameters.

 

With the right conditions and driving technique, you can come close. It takes practice, persistence, and patience.

CAN-View is an add-on device, now no longer available except for Prius with a plug-in conversion.

 

Certainly a non-highway route will take longer, so whether that is acceptable depends on your tolerance for longer drive times. I find that when I start earlier and drive more slowly on non-highway routes, I am less stressed and more relaxed in the process and when I arrive. And I enjoy the challenge of working for results like these.

It's a bonus that the alternative you found is actually a shorter distance. Often my alternatives are a bit longer, so I'm careful to assess whether total net fuel savings is likely. If I have any question, I use a simple spreadsheet to calculate the expected results to verify. Both of the routes I've linked in this thread had shorter highway options. But I would have had to get around 80 MPG on either to use less total fuel. That ain't happening!

Safety of course is the top priority, for driving and routing. For my trip to the airport, I considered some additional off-the-beaten-path alternative segments. But they would have taken me through neighborhoods I tend to avoid in daylight.

 

Here's another:



This is the opposite and complete trip from my part time job site, referred to in the first post, to my fiancee's house using this route. Could be a record tank, too. It's at 76.4 MPG with 4 pips left.

 

Thanks, Ron. This is one of my primary objectives.

22 MPH is a bit misleading. It of course is miles ÷ total time, not just time spent on the move. I have 47 total lights (if I've accounted for all of them) and five stop signs on this route. I try to time the lights to avoid having to stop completely (some good luck with the lights on this day helped), but invariably I'll have to stop for several -- and for the stop signs of course. So a fair amount of time is spent waiting for a green light or a break in traffic. Some quick back-of-the-envelope math suggests that if I reduced time by 10 minutes (which may be a little on the high side) for when I was sitting still, the average would have been in the neighborhood of 25 MPH.

 

I forgot to account for a stop I made on the way home to grab some margarita mix, during which I left the car on. That was maybe five minutes, so actual on-the-move average MPH may be closer to 27 or 28 MPH.

One final note about this trip. It was on a Saturday. I seriously doubt I ever would get these results on a weekday in the 5-6 PM time frame. Part of my driving strategy is seeking routes favorable for pulse and glide at the time of the trip. On the whole, Richmond area streets still are moderately busy on the weekend, but certain segments used routinely by weekday commuters are quite favorable for P&G on weekends. This commute has 47 stop lights (if I've accounted for them all) and five stop signs. These lightly traveled segments allow more precise timing of red lights and more liberal use of gliding to approach stops.