Carpool lane dilemma

I'll vote lower speed and shorter.

 

I second that! Enjoy listening to audio books or your favorite music with the extra time you have in your car.

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

I have a similar problem, I have a Prius v that gets 38 MPG the way I drive it, and I pay for the gas. My wife has a company Tahoe that gets about 17 MPG the way I drive it and her employer pays for the gas.

Do I drive to use fewer resources or to save money? I drive to use fewer resources, and take the Prius, not the anti-Prius.

 

How much is gas down there?

Time is the most precious resource we have, and you can never get time back.

As someone who does 38 miles one way up here in the Bay Area, if I could find a shorter time route, I’d take it (even for 11 minutes) as it would allow more time for things I want to do, not need to do.

Use some gas and save some time.

 

I would take the shorter route and accumulate fewer miles on the car. Listen to an audiobook or podcast so the extra time is not wasted. The option always exists to take the fast way if you need to be home earlier.

 

how long does your current drive take?

i would test the other route, for awhile before deciding on the best course

 

Surface streets are harder on cars than freeway driving.
More regenerative braking means.....more braking, and there's a time penalty.
Your chances of an accident are greater on surface streets. Also even in California, in some cases the cost of non-free charging is sometimes > than gas driving....so a split decision might work better for you, meaning drive TO work on the "free" juice that you get from your apartment and put the $1.50 a day into a piggy bank, unless it makes more sense not to.
My last fill-up was $2.11 a gallon, so I already know how the math works for ME.

As pointed out earlier, TIME would be the overarching factor for ME.
As long as you live in an area that allows HOV access for single occupancy gas burners, I'd take advantage of that law!!!

Every......time.

Good Luck!

 

Having alternate route is good thing. If you are not in hurry, use car pool lane. All EV and no gas is a good thing. When you are in hurry use longer distance but shorter travel time route. That's all.

 

You may not have driven on the freeways around LA recently. You use your brakes a lot on those freeways.

 

Another thought - try them both and see which is less stressful and how much time you are actually saving. Waze is generally pretty accurate, but not always. Or, just flip a coin each morning - heads you go one way, tails you go the other. Then each day is a surprise.

 

First, I'd check the new route to see if it really saves you the time it says, and also judge the route for possible complications. Then I'd vote for saving the time, but it's going to cost you more money because of burning gas. It wont hurt the car any, it's designed for hybrid mode and it works pretty well that way. My time is pretty important to me too and burning 20 or so miles a day in gas is a small price to pay. (I actually have a 75 mile commute and can only charge at home, so I burn gas every day no matter what.)

 

Your last sentence would seal the deal for me. You're only using gas for 11 miles each way for less than a couple of bucks even at California prices.

As others mentioned though, check out the WAZE route and see if it's good alternative for you.

 

I guess it all depends on what you're going to do with the time savings. Race powerboats? Take a nap? Burn rainforests? Whatever it is, consider that vs. the time lost behind the wheel.

 

There are rain forests left to burn?

 

Pretty certain there are none of those in Southern California.

 

I think I'd do whatever is less stressful. I wish there was a stress free route to my workplace. Or even a low stress one.

 

When I was commuting 31 miles each way, on nice days I would take the convertible on the back roads and enjoy the scenery and fresh air. Otherwise I took a different route that was shorter and quicker, but not as nice.

 

Uber?

 

And add the stress of putting my life in the hands of one of those clowns choking the roads doing stupid stuff. And pay for the privilege on top of it. ROFLOL. I don't think so. There's only one driver I trust and I'm not totally sure about him.