Does the Prius calm drivers?

I'm exactly the same way. I became a mellow driver. Traffic jams don't get in my nerves as much - sometimes I prefer it (sometimes). I also tend to be more considerate in giving lanes, etc. now more than ever.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Orf @ Jun 9 2006, 06:32 PM) [snapback]268978[/snapback]</div>

me three.A.ND MY WEEKEND CAR IS a Ford GT40...during =commuting, there is nothing like the prius..loving it....

 

That feeling is shared by many of us, I'm sure. Here's what I wrote a few months ago in my testimonial for Bill Nye's Who's Got Hybrids? feature at HybridCenter.org:

It's not just good for the environment, I find that it's actually been good for my soul. I'm more relaxed and I drive less aggressively and more considerately than I used to. Plus, I'm a happy camper in traffic and long drive-thru window lines since I'm not wasting gas and polluting the air by idling when stopped.

 

I am much more relaxed and less aggressive but today I had one of those episodes where burning a little extra gas is somewhat justified.

In Santee there is a bridge with a light at both ends. A big F250 choose to take the lane to my left rather than behind me. I started off the light and realized he was gunning it to pull in front of me in order to turn right, so instead of coasting to the light that was red I gave it a bit more gas resulting in the F250 losing that opportunity and having to pull in behind the Prius and another car behind me. I couldn't resist giving him a little toot and a wave ( I do know if there had been more space there he might have gotten ahead of me but there wasn't) Santee is a very redneck area of San Diego County so the Prius is rarely seen there, lots of gas guzzlers.

I promise to be good....for a while! :mellow:

 

OK Now is the time. We need to put together a RFP to the NIH for a grant. Any psychologists out there. We have several MD's to put on the list of principal investigators but we would look better with Psychologists and Psychiatriests in our corner. It would be good to have a pharmacologist as well. I see millions of dollars to be distributed. Does anyone know someone on the appropriations committee in the Senate?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Orf @ Jun 9 2006, 08:34 PM) [snapback]269023[/snapback]</div>

Sadly, no. When I am on my Explorer, I start ignoring those potholes, and after about 10 minutes, I am back to my bad old driving self

As an addendum, I probably put about 50 miles on my Explorer for the last year.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(airpolgas @ Jun 9 2006, 10:54 PM) [snapback]269030[/snapback]</div>

Dittos here. I am definitely more mellow in the Prius. The Prius is just so well designed for typical traffic patterns, red lights, stop signs, and stop-n-go traffic are just much easier to deal with. Confirmations from the MFD are a big plus.
Who needs a gas-guzzling, clutch-pumping, 0-60, 4-wheelin' bohemoth?
However, when I drive the old Ranger its back to my old patterns almost immediately.

 

me too, love sitting at the light and everythin is soooo quiet, i love it, especially at night

except when im in a hurry, its not that fun...

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Orf @ Jun 9 2006, 08:34 PM) [snapback]269023[/snapback]</div>

Absolutely. I'm now getting much higher mileage in my Subaru Legacy wagon than I used to. Part of that is due to the Prius being used for in-city driving that the Subaru used to do. But I also find myself coasting up to lights in neutral (it's a 5 speed) and driving slower in general (the big engine in the Subaru makes you *feel* like going 80 doesn't hurt your mileage). I also pay attention to tire pressure more than I used to.

I'm even getting complaints from my wife that I drive too slow. Now THATS progress...

Matt...

 

I'd say a qualified yes.

It does for me.

While I don' t think it will for everyone, I'll bet that there are a higher percentage of people for whom the Prius relaxes and calms them while driving than any other major manufactured car, except possibly for a select number of other electric or hybrid vehicles.

Nothing like that nav screen to remind me to calm down, relax, slow down and up that mileage.

 

Some of my observations about my driving in the month or so I've had my Prius:

I definitely drive more calmly/slower, probably mostly because I can see the mileage, and it becomes a game trying to maximize it, but also because it's a new car and I don't want anything to happen to it.

I brake more slowly, because I'd rather engage the magnets/regeneration system than the friction brakes. (the car is sooo quiet, I can *hear* the friction brakes engaging when I'm going slow!) This often causes me to overshoot the target a little.

People around me often seem to be more subdued as well. BUT, I don't know if it's because 1) they are really driving differently because of my car ("oh look, it's a prius, i'd better drive responsibly", their subconscious says to them) OR 2) I've discovered that other segment of drivers, the ones that actually usually drive slow, but I just never noticed them before because I was too busy driving fast.

 

Absolutely. I've taken to referring to it as "a Prius state of mind" and I'm living it and loving it.

I don't think that I have ever feel so relaxed, and yes mellow is a great word, behind the wheel of a car.

I am still taken by the stupidity of some other drivers but I don't react the same way. I just find myself shaking my head and moving on.

The only "negative" to the "Prius state of mind" is that occasionally I find myself slowing below speed limits for a bit before realizing what's happening and get back up to 55 or 65 MPH. To be honest, I have found myself looking at the MFD and thinking "alright, I'm going 55" only to then realize it was 55mpg and not 55mph!

 

Hi All,

I think the Prius has helped calm me down behind the wheel. The previous car was a Saturn SL2. While I drove the Saturn with a rapid initial accelleration and coast-it-into-red-light method, same as the Prius I had allot more problem with other traffic with the Saturn. The BIGGEST problem with the SL2 is its near invisibility, or thought to be much farther away than it actually was by other drivers. Maybe they think its an Alero at 10 feet out, when it was my SL2 at 5 feet out, and 2 feet out when they finally pull in front of the SL2 moving 5 mph faster than they are! Also, the melow GM colors just DO NOT work for small cars. Other drivers just do not see recognise these cars as typical of a moving vehicle, seperate from the background in local road driving! Making for a much more frazled GM small car driver. At least VW gets one thing right. They have bright colors for small cars. I guess the police prejudice, or ease of observation of the bright car colors is part to blame for this. I think the Army would have a good deal if they just took the Saturn Bronze color (which is actually a mid greyish-brown) and painted all their Humvee s this color for dusk and night patrol camoflauge! Or maybe the SL2 windshield is at the brewster angle? Whatever, the SL2 is nearly invisible in traffic!

The other problem with the SL2 is the driver's seat. For all the carping one sees on the PC and elsewere about the Prius Seat, its a dramatic improvement over the SL2 seat. The SL2 seat is probably optimum for a 120 pound female. It has much too little seat pan cushion modulus (too compressable) for a 230 pound male big shouldered male. The result is that the lower edge bar of the vertical portion of the seat gets you right in the sacroyliac, as if there was no padding on it at all. This is because the seat cushion alows you to sink about 3 inches too far from the design nominal.

The Prius seat lumbar support is to high for me. Tends to push my shoulders downward. I can stretch up to get it to kind fit, and on long highway trips if I conciously do this, it works OK. The leg room is like perfect, however. Never had a car before that was this perfect in the leg length department. My heritage is from people with shorter legs and longer torso's but of the same height as the average WASP american, however. I have to say the Prius seat is designed for a 6 foot 3 male on the seat back, and a 5 foot 11 male (5 foot 6 female) on the seat bottom and position to the pedals.

I really have not changed driving lane selection too much, except to get out of the left lane when the speed gets up above 70 mph. Where I might have hung in there up to 80 in the SL2, soas to make a junction with another road before that road became clogged with traffic. If its clogged in the Prius, so what, I' ll be getting 60 mpg (instead of 15 in the SL2) for that leg of the trip, and I dont have the damn SL2 seat sticking me in the back for the extra 5 to 20 minutes on the road. When in the right lane, I do have a larger following distance with the Prius, to help keep a steadier average speed. My lane selection is mostly based on the traffic patterns of the route I drive, to get the best overall travel time, not on what lane is going to get me the fastest speed at the time. I pretty much know where the traffic is going to bunch up during the time of day I travel on the route. And which lanes tend to move quicker through these slow zones. Choosing a lane that is the fastest at mile 31, commonly results in the slowest time to mile 35 in the traffic conditions that prevail during my commutes. But when the fast lane results in the lowest overall comute time, I am not shy about using it, either.

And finally, playing the mileage video game helps keep me distracted from the really nasty things (deliberate, negligent, or ignorant) other drivers are doing. So, the impulse for road rage is much reduced.

All in all, the Prius has been a great step up in my driving quality of life.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Orf @ Jun 9 2006, 07:10 PM) [snapback]268967[/snapback]</div>

Yep and the aftereffects have spilled over into other areas of my life as well. Just look at the change in style of my posts at the beginning and now. . .

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Salsawonder @ Jun 9 2006, 07:56 PM) [snapback]268991[/snapback]</div>

Ha! I have caught myseld slipping back into this mode now and again. Just can't help showing some of these tailgating moron's in big trucks/SUV's my taillights as they try to squeeze around me.

Wildkow

 

i guess i'm the only one that drives insane. at least in the mornings, i'm usually one of the faster drivers up here in seattle

 

Prius calms its drivers, but can have the opposite effect on internet chats.

 

I saw a Prius on the Freeway in Las Vegas last week that was being driven by a very calm person. She was driving at 55 in a 65 zone while all those around her wer traveling at 70+. I'm sure she made it to her destination with a great MPG. average. I just hope she didn't cause to many accidents getting there.