How frequently do you use HSI RED Power range

Only if I'm going up a hill and there's traffic behind me. Otherwise the highest I go deliberately is the top of the ECO zone.

So, on my commute 20.6/20.8 um 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 places where I might have to go into the red, with maybe 2 other places in colder or wetter conditions where top of Eco doesn't quite cut it.

 

Thank you.

So, with this as a starting point, we can figure if we extend all methods to 39.6 seconds (with the faster methods continuing at 45 MPH, and assuming linear acceleration), that method 1 travels 1725.9 feet in that time, method 2, 1442.1 feet, and method 3, 1306.8 feet. Which means, if the average speed until the next stop light is 40 MPH, that method will take 4.8 seconds more, while method 3 will take an entire 7.1 seconds more to get to the next stop. If you have 17 such stops on you commute, you will need to leave 82 seconds earlier for method 2, and 2 whole minutes earlier for method 3.

Wayne Gerdes claims that method 3 gets 86 MPG, if we assume that method 1 gets 43 MPG (to pick an even number). Then over a 25 mile commute, method 3 uses 0.29 gallons less fuel, which at $3.60 per gallon means it saves $1.04. For 2 minutes 'work'. Thus, method 3 is like earning $31.32 per hour...

Yes, there are a lot of assumptions in this, feel free to do the calculations yourself for your particular situation.

 

I don't think that driving a Prius gives me any right to hold up traffic all around me so I can eek out a few extra MPG, so I'll accelerate appropriately. The main thing is to be interactive and to surf the traffic pattern. So I'll generally accelerate from a stop about halfway through the red, watching the car behind me: if I'm leaving them in the dust, I ease off and accelerate slower, and as I approach the speed limit, I also gradually ease off letting the car "fill out" the speed. Watch for lights ahead, watch the terrain, watch turning cars and other obstructions, anticipate...

 

I don't think owning a Porsche gives me any right to push traffic to accelerate faster and produce more pollution, consume more of our limited fossil fuel energy, in order to save a few seconds, so I'll accelerate appropriately.

How are those statements different?

 

Love this!!! One of the best posts I've ever seen on this site!

 

Im a newbie here , only having my Prius for about 3 weeks and 2500 miles. But most of my driving is my daily commute to work (140 mi R/T) on So Cal freeways where the traffic flow speeds vary from 85mph to 5mph.

The freeways I drive the traffic is dense and aggressive driving (405 , 101 and 5 freeways in LA). I find that Im in the red at least 75% of the time that I have to accelerate to keep up with the traffic flow. I do keep much more distance between myself and other cars now trying to glide more than I did with other cars but even this causes a lot of drivers to cut in between me and the car in front. When we are at a cruise speed I set the cruise control or drive trying to keep the indicator in the middle.

The good thing is Ive found that even driving with the flow of traffic, not holding back from passing or driving a little "spirited" I am still getting an avg of 44 mpg on regular gas which is more than double the 20 mpg I used to get with my Infiniti so the savings are more than $ 14 a day just for work and that makes it worth the change.

 

By allowing them to do just that, you are contributing to making traffic flow more smoothly and quicker. In the end, this contributes to you actually getting home sooner. If the car in front of you is going slower than the other lanes, they will switch right back out. If it is going faster, it is better for everybody if more cars are in that lane. Either way, you are no worse off. However, since people are free to use your lane for passing and lane switching for exits, there is less of a chance that someone will need to slam on their brakes, which is what really creates traffic jams.

 

The cost-benefit analysis and the thing about the Porsche make some good points, but I'd like to offer another way to look at this.

First, assuming linear acceleration is probably a good enough approximation for comparison, but I don't think we should treat method 3 as strictly linear. Changing acceleration at 16 MPH bends the curve and decreases the total distance traveled. For this method, I think we need to break it into two linear pieces, with the second one having the same slope as method 2, and the first one having whatever slope is necessary to meet that one at 16 MPH. Also, since I measured the time to 40 MPH and 45 MPH, we might as well incorporate that data point into our piecewise linear model.

So, calculating that way, for the four roads I measured, method 3 falls behind by 155, 699, 428, and 588 feet, for an average of 467 feet. Imagine we're at the front of the line at a red light, next to a row of Prii in the adjacent lane. When the light turns green, they all start off using method 1, while we use method 3. Let's assume the other cars use the two-second rule for spacing. About 45 seconds later, when everyone is going 45 MPH, we've fallen a little behind car number 4 in the other lane.

Is it disruptive to lag that far behind other traffic? The answer probably varies from individual to individual and location to location. I certainly felt like I was being a little disruptive when I conducted the method 3 experiment, though I was too busy trying to stay in my lane while staring at the HSI and the speedometer to count how many cars were passing me.

At any rate, kudos to Corwyn for designing an experiment that allows us to quantitatively compare the different acceleration methods.

 

Well I live in eastern So Cal on the edge of the mountains. Its "hilly" to say the least so I'm in the red a lot. I almost use the sound of the engine more than the meter. When the tone changes from a steady increase to a "labored" tone I stop and back off a touch. I'm still 50mpg+ and haven't held anyone up that I know of so that works for me.

 

Similar to my experience. I live in a rural, hilly area, maintaining speed on the long uphill highway stretches means forays into the red. (winter only exacerbates this btw)