Seems like every day during my commute when I'm gliding on my favorite street with a speed limit of 35 or 40 at least once some crazy nut zooms up to one of the side stop signs like they are going to run through it, and slams on the brakes right at the stop. I hit my brake just in case, probably because of the crazy cell-phone lady that ran the stop sign on the same commute route and totaled my minivan. I assume this happens other places besides Albuquerque, home of the worst drivers in the US. Am I the only one affected by these crazy nuts? Maybe I should buy a brake shop? Don't they realize they just cost me 1 mpg on my commute??
If it weren't for all the traffic I bet you'ld get some nice glides from the heights down to the river. I even used to like the glide down in my old porsche 912 when I lived there (was it Candalaria, Lomas, or Indian School that I liked best? -- can't remember, all changed now I suppose).
Every once and a while, when I'm timing the stoplights, I'm surprised by that enlightened driver who knows what I'm doing and goes with it. One day, an annoying little piss figured out what I was doing and as I approached behind him, he started taking off with traffic. As I began to ease back up to speed, he hit his brakes just enough to make me hit mine [HARD] and then he took off again. It was intentional and blatant. Yesterday, the woman in front of me was most likely lost and randomly braking. Even the longest of following distances can be ruined by a random braker.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(samiam @ Sep 6 2007, 09:46 PM) [snapback]508355[/snapback]</div> Actually I live on the OTHER side, the northwest heights, this is where all the growth is now. Same principle, downhill almost all the way to the Rio. All the streets you mention are great for gliding west. Going back up is another story! Abq to NZ... you really get around! I knew a computer programmer that moved to Tazmania or NZ, can't remember... you ever work at USGS?
Nope, wasn't me. We have green chile sent to us here. The smell of roasting chile in the autumn air. Dang, I miss that.
I envy all you guys and girls who at least get some form of timed sequence on the lights. In Sydney there are too many two lane roads with totally unphased lights to make any form of decent glide happen. Then you get the idiots who pull out from a side road just in front of you and then don't get up to the speed limit quickly enough. Yeah, we actually have drivers in other cars who are a lot slower than the perceived Prius driver.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(AussieOwner @ Sep 7 2007, 05:17 PM) [snapback]508441[/snapback]</div> I hate that with a passion. :angry: I especially hate it when they pull out in front of me and drive slowly, but when I look in the mirror there is a massive gap behind me. <_< Hey, your traffic light system in Sydney is the system South Australia uses although we made some modifications to it. The lights work in pairs, one set of lights tells the other when your coming and it is suposed to be timed to go green on your approach. It doesn't work every time especially during peak hour. Our system is also suposed to addapt for heavy traffic extending the green time for the most congested direction. There are cameras on most lights and the system is monitored from a central monitoring centre.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(AussieOwner @ Sep 7 2007, 03:47 AM) [snapback]508441[/snapback]</div> Here in Delaware USA, we get that all the time. Tourists and Locals alike. Complete idiots. Best display of brainless driving I've ever seen. I just drive smart and keep my distance, get a great glide and seldom touch my brakes - at least through most of the traffic. There is always the golden brainless idiot who we see waiting to get into traffic, on a road where the speed limit is about 45-50mph, and waits until just the last minute to enter the lane. I need a semi-truck horn on my Prius I think --- any suggestions? Something that pierces even the loudest stereo.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(AussieOwner @ Sep 7 2007, 03:47 AM) [snapback]508441[/snapback]</div> Lights? Who has traffic lights? We have two flashing ones on the state highway where it winds through town, but no real stop lights. The pressure of urban sprawl is working it's way toward us, though, as there is now one real stop light in the county. It's 20 miles away, right on the edge of our only big city (population 16,000). Another tourist town on the south end of the lake has two traffic related ceremonies every year: when they turn on the traffic light at the beginning of summer, and when they turn it off at the end. Tom
Cars pulling in front from a side road is one of my biggest challenges in sustaining a good glide. I find there are two good approaches to dealing with them: 1. If there's enough room, ease off a little and let them in. If they drive slowly, so much the better because then the person riding your bumper doesn't blame you for going slow anymore 2. If there's just enough room for them to pull in, but they're hesitating to judge your speed and distance, give it a little gas and close that gap. Sometimes burning a little extra saves a little down the road. Think of it as an extra pulse The people who will pull in front when there's not much room will usually also accelerate quickly, but I don't like to put more pressure on other cars to accelerate quickly since a guzzler accelerating heavily will probably burn more gas than my Prius will when I have to recover some lost speed. I only wish that our consumption graph took into account the fuel we help other drivers save by evening out the traffic patterns
I had to laugh at qbee42's comment about the lack of traffic lights. When I was taking driver's ed in high school (in a '59 chevy BTW), we had to take turns driving up to the town's one traffic light so we could learn to stop & go correctly. Almost 50 years later, the place (in rural northern NY) has really exploded - there are now 2 traffic lights!
My daily commute of 35km to and from work takes me through 40 sets of traffic lights each way! Maybe I should include that in my fuel consumption posts. Averaging 4.3L/100km (about 55mpg) and 80 sets of traffic lights per day. That's more than a set every kilometre!!! My 40 sets of traffic lights is not counting about 5 sets of pedestrian activated lights each way as they are rarely red.
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