Interesting situation that happened... stuck going 15mph

It will happen again, but the car will take care of itself by lighting up the ICE to charge that battery, so it never drops below 2 bars. No driver intervention is required.

You were going slow enough to stay in all-electric mode. This can rapidly deplete the battery. Unless this was on a mild downslope, I strongly doubt that it took 20 minutes to get this low -- the car probably already fired the ICE several times for charging, and you didn't notice.

You can try to avoid this by trying a pulse-and-glide pattern, fit to the conditions. But this is not required.

Where I grew up, a double yellow line is not reason to stay behind farm equipment moving this slow. It is intended for traffic moving closer to the speed limit.

 

ICE would have fired up to charge the battery already. The HV battery only lasts about 1-2 miles.

 

Well, I was crawling slowly (less than 15kmh) in traffic for about 2 hours during the big wet one evening in Melbourne earlier this year, the battery was discharged to 2 bars for the first time, ICE kicked in to recharge the battery to 3 bars, then turned itself off, but I continued to crawl slowly in the traffic. When battery discharged to 2 bars, ICE fires off again to recharge battery to 3 bars, then turned off... this process repeated at least 7 to 8 times during those 2 hours!

Now 6 months later, I am still averaging 4.3l/100km. In other words, no damage done! So I guess don't worry if it happens to you over an extended period of time.

 

Only way to really help is a neutral glide since it draws the least amount of energy, and using EV as lightly as possible when needed.

Of course, no harm done either way, just in terms of mileage it helps somewhat.

 

Where I grew up a double yellow didn't indicate that it was just illegal to pass, but rather that it was unsafe to pass. The sight lines weren't long enough to see the oncoming car which was going to crush you if you tried to pass.

 

JUST DRIVE IT has been the motto for 11 years now. That's because there isn't ever any reason to worry or any action you need to take on your part when you get stuck in heavy traffic. The system will take care of itself, firing up the engine when it needs to charge the battery and/or provide heat.

For me, I see that often during the heavy winter commutes. But it did actually happen the other day too. I got stuck taking a back route due to a construction detour. The 4-way stop was backed up for blocks. There I sat, no concern at all. The engine never started either, that entire stop & go nightmare. Of course, if I had needed the electric A/C it would have. But fortunately, it was a nice day out.
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Yes, but over the decades the length of these double yellows has increased, and new sections of double lines kept getting added. It was clear that they were designed around the long sight lines needed to safely pass others moving at speed limit.

Farm equipment moving at 25% of PSL can be passed in much shorter distances. With patience, the needed sight lines and traffic gap opportunities for these extremely slow speeds can often be found.

 

In the situation OP described the ICE can be used in spurts. You need to keep a longer distance from the car in front of you.

 

There are people who use the Prius as generators, as campers, and just leave the car in the ready mode for hours or over night. Your 20 minutes at 15 mph is nothing. People take the Prius to its extremes all the time. There are people who get over 100mpg out of it without the PHEV help. There are people who convert it to PHEV and drove exclusively on EV and nothing happens to its HV battery pack, converter, MG1,MG2. There are people who drove over 150 miles after the last fuel pip start blinking. Prius is designed for pretty much anything you throw at it.

 

Next time run the big green machine off the road a la A Clockwork Orange and that'll ensure your battery has 8 bars of milk plus vellocet or synthemesc or drencrom

 

For future reference:

Lawriter - ORC - 4511.31 Establishing hazardous zones.

Section (A) establishes no-overtaking zones.

Section (B.) allows overtaking in certain circumstances:

 

My out-laws live in OH and my family has a house in VT - where I've seen people passing on a double yellow. For grins, I did a search and found:

In Ohio, a driver can legally cross the double yellow line under some conditions:

§4511.31. Hazardous zones

(A) The department of transportation may determine those portions of any state highway where overtaking and passing other traffic or to the left of the center or center line of the roadway would be especially hazardous and may, by appropriate signs or markings on the highway, indicate the beginning and end of such zones. …

Division (A) of this section does not apply when all of the following apply:

(1) The slower vehicle is proceeding at less than half the speed of the speed limit applicable to that location.

(2) The faster vehicle is capable of overtaking and passing the slower vehicle without exceeding the speed limit.

(3) There is sufficient clear sight distance to the left of the center or center line of the roadway to meet the overtaking and passing provisions of section 4511.29 of the Revised Code, considering the speed of the slower vehicle.

Interesting bit for hypermiling in VT:

• Vermont permits passing on the double yellow line unless a signpost specifically prohibits it for a particular section.
• It is illegal to coast in neutral.

Darn - no more having fun coasting down those mountains!