Can I go fast and get good gas mileage?

Sure, find the pedal to the far right, push on it. Now drive the car as if you had no brakes, your city mileage is largely a function of how often you stop. Your highway mileage is largely a function of how fast you cruise, I recommend 61 MPH.

 

Now see, I have a different attitude. It is not "people will try to cut in front of me", it is "I am drafting and using their air".

 

I drive through the center of Zurich to work, and through the center of Zurich from work - and it is a dog eat dog world out there. The otherwise polite, and reserved Swiss go mad during the rush hour. In such a situation, you must be able to accelerate fast, just to get out of harms way. The Prius does that very well. It also has a calming affect on me, and I drive slower, not really caring about the 5 minutes I will gain if I piss off every other motorist on the road and almost kill a cyclist or two. So, yeah, you can go fast quickly, but why bother? Enjoy the ride. [disclamer: I am a newby and only owned a Prius for 3 days - so perhaps I am suffering from the "honeymoon effect"]

 

You know there is something I noticed about the people who cut in front of me, prety soon they are cutting in front of someone else so overall I don't loose any ground. Another thing, they often seem to be stopped at the next traffic light just like everyone else.
Drive smooth, accelerate as hard as you want but as was said earlier, drive like you have no brakes. Want to get there sooner? Leave earlier.

 

I wouldn't change a thing. You like to drive fast. You don't want anyone to cut in front of you. The city is busy so great acceleration is not really needed. It is not like a Ferrari will let you drive so much faster. The Prius will give you great mileage relative to any other car driven hard.

So what you are doing right now is perfect. You most likely not get 50 mpg. On the other hand, you will get about 35 mpg to 45 mpg and that's pretty good considering you are driving aggressively.

You are there already.

I would counsel you to slow down though.

 

Get a new car and don't care about mileage. It's pretty easy, really.

 

Ok i wrote a lot but in summary PROPER BRAKING is 10 times more important than how You accelerate. You need to leave some distance to do that but u don't need to go slow i think. Slower on the highway is all ways better but it still gets great mileage at any speed. Some folks didn't really answer your question but told u change ur driving habits in a major way (which you may in the end change anyway. i kinda changed mine but i understand what u mean about being in a hurry)

i got my moms Prius when she stopped driving a few days ago... i used to drive that Prius on trips from Atlanta to FL we went 75 to 80 mph and we got 48 to 50 mpg. i know millage drops somewhat above 70 mph but time is money so cant fault people if they don't change all there travel habits just save 10% mpg. But there are lots of things u can do that cost u nothing in time, or are insignificant in time. i dont agree if u drive slow it doesn't matter cause every one will stop at the next light ... sometime ur fast enough to make the next light and the slow ones miss it and wait. Also in Atlanta people just drive fast. Lights really just depends on which city and how they are timed.

AGAIN MOST IMPORTANT is TRY TO Leave some distance for BRAKING when driving, if u stop too fast use a lot mechanical brakes and that hurts your gas mileage a lot. If u floor it a lot (or speed up slow) u need to leave distance for moderate braking .... if you don't leave distance and u brake hard you are going to get a lot worse gas mileage because u are turning speed energy into heat with mechanical brakes ... if u floor it a lot but coast/glide at speed then stop moderately u will regain most of the energy and ur going to save lots gas. it helps if u move the accelerator pedal slow and only quickly if u plan on using the gas engine ... Again try to plan not to stop quick or u will mostly use the mechanical brakes not recharge the battery's thru regeneration. my opinion is if your slightly not optimal getting up to speed its minor. i admit i am fast driver, but i am enjoying trying to get good mileage as long i don't hold up traffic, so i am driving slower and u may see your driving habits change too. Its funny but once u get one if no ones around and u got time is fun to drive a bit slower on electric. Still i think it can great mpg if your careful with your breaking mainly. How ever u drive u will do much better than a typical car i think. I been playing around with good mileage the last few days with it driving about 60 to 65 on highway and easily got 55 mpg.... around town if go on electric when no ones around i get 50 to 54, on average and i floor it often if i need to. sometimes i floor it, sometimes i try to accel with my mpg 3/4 to 1/2 my speed. On the other hand if i accel full throttle but not above my desired speed and leave room for moderate braking i still get close to 50 mpg, the key is once up to speed, coast/glide some. ... i think you can drive fast, again just leave room to break somewhat slowly. The gas pedal does not operate the throttle valve directly like a normal car and ur never sure what gearing is so i am learning whats best, but on a normal gasoline engine car, full throttle and shift around max torque is most fuel efficient way to get up to a given speed. Also when i drove it with my mom i didn't know the car well and all did was keep it out of the power zone (far left) and try to stop slow. (which was required some retraining of my brake foot) i didn't even know what the MFD display meant back then. i think i drive it faster now than i did with her but i am getting better gas mileage now too.