My Prius's Red Light Trigger

Here's why I'm not getting the 50+ mpg in my "city" driving that other people seem to achieve so effortlessly.

My Prius has a unique mechanism that causes most traffic lights to turn red as it approaches. What's more, almost all intersections are on an uphill incline. Those that are on level ground are quickly followed by a hill.

Today I decided to keep count of all lights on my 5 mile trip home from the Metro station. I go through 17 intersections with traffic lights, plus 3 stop signs. I had to come to a complete stop for 10 red lights. For the others, a red light would change to green ahead of me, but I had to slow down for the traffic that was already stopped.

Just before reaching home, I made a 10-minute stop at a store. I managed to achieve 40 mpg with an average speed of 13 mph (speed limits here are 35-45mph except for the 25mph zone right in the neighborhood).

 

Oh ... I thought the RLA was supposed to assist me in turning the red lights to green. What a rip-off!

 

Sheesh...some cars will let anyone hit them!

 

I would if there weren't a whole line of cars in front of me!

And speaking of being over the speed limit. I not only have a red-light triggering mechanism, I have a speed camera trigger. I've received several pictures of my Prius in the mail with a $40 ticket attached. (I haven't had a "real" speeding ticket in about 30 years!)

 

Na...it's not a shock because I had a Prius before, too. My overall mileage was 43mpg over three years. I love my Prius and, as you say, I still get much better mileage than with any other car. What I am kind of reacting to is that so many people on here are shocked at the CR results that rate city driving much lower than the the EPA estimates. That's been my experience all along. My "city" is obviously not the same as the EPA's and most other people's cities. But I can't believe it's unique, either! 40-45mpg average is still very good for my local trips, but it's a little frustrating when one hears other people saying how it's virtually impossible for them to get anything below high 40s. I drive 4 or 5 miles each way on my daily commute. If my drive were shorter, I'd probably be getting only in the low 30s because that's what it shows after the first 5-10 minutes.

Here's what my poor little car has to go through:

Start up ... drive a couple of blocks through neighborhood, stopping at 3 intersections... make right turn onto main road... get up to speed (40mph) on busy uphill road ... slow down and stop at traffic light .... start and get up to speed on uphill gradient....repeat several times..

There are some nice downhill stretches before I reach my destination in the morning so I can usually get it up in the high 40s, sometimes even 51, but at night, it's a different story.

So, I guess you're right. Since I want to optimize my Prius's performance, I'll just have to move!

 

I've been caught by the speed cameras FOUR times! It's only $40 here though. I must be a very slow learner because I've been nailed by the same camera 3 times. I JUST DON"T SEE the warning sign and because it's invariably traffic-free (like a weekend) when I get nailed it doesn't trigger any reaction in me to slow down.

 

So today I go to the closer Metro stop, which is only 1.5 miles from my house. In the morning, I went through a neighborhood route -- I have to cross a main road (stop sign, no light), then drive through a 25mph zone with multiple stop signs, stop at a traffic light and turn right onto a main road, then arrive at the parking lot. I achieved a whopping 29mpg at an average speed of 10mph. I didn't record how long it took, but probably around 10 minutes.

The route back involved coming out of the parking lot onto a side road, stopping at a traffic light, then turning left onto the main road, which is pretty much downhill to within a quarter mile of my house, where I have to navigate a few hills again. For the 1.5 mile trip, I went through 4 traffic lights, and had to stop for the first 3. I drove in PWR mode and achieved 37 mpg.