hybrid hater honk?

Jealousy isn't pretty. F*** 'em.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(palau @ Apr 16 2006, 08:00 PM) [snapback]240711[/snapback]</div>

I think you make a few people mad just driving at the speed limit. I don't think that people like that even know what a hybrid is. I am not seeing a lot of change in driving behaviors yet. I read something that suggested that will not happen until around $5/Gal. I think that you will know that the gas price is at the right spot when the student parking lots at high schools and the busses are full in the morning. You will get better milage as time goes on. I am a believer in the break in change, and I don't care if it mechanical or biological or a bit of both. A lot goes into your milage but driving behavior is central.

 

Honestly, i doubt too many people realize their driving habits effect their MPG's. Prior to getting my Prius 1.5 months ago, i really had no idea. Granted, it's pretty obvious that revving the engine real high to speed up quickly burns a lot of gas, but it's not so obvious that maintaining 75 MPH uses all that much more fuel that maintaining 65 MPH. I'm guessing that this sort of logic needs to be more broadly advertised before people will start driving sensibly. If you ask me, everyone should be required to have an MFD of some sort showing them they're MPG data. Our national fuel consumption would decrease instantly, as would the occurances of high speed collisions.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Tideland Prius @ Apr 16 2006, 09:43 PM) [snapback]240755[/snapback]</div>

The guy behind you was just signaling you to wash your windshield until you run out of fluid. :lol:

 

I pull up at a store and get the usual responce, Is that one of those electric cars?

Yeah buddy hears your sign!

 

I don't think those folks know what a hybrid is. But they definitely hate people who drive the speed limit. I don't get comments often, but on the very rare occasions when someone comments in a parking lot, the questions are either "Is that a Prius?" or "Is that a hybrid?" Nobody has ever asked me if it was an electric car.

 

I know exactly what you mean. We just picked up our Prius two days ago and put 400 miles on it visiting our kids and driving home from the dealer (we bought it in the Detroit area, 300 miles from home). I usually drive at the speed limit, and on the highway around Detroit I spent a lot of time in the lane second from the right. The right lane was full of cars merging and exiting, and often became an "exit only" lane, so it wasn't good for through traffic. This was a four lane highway, which left two more "fast" lanes for passing us snail-paced slowpokes who only drive the speed limit. We were overtaken constantly on both sides, with cars in our lane often preferentially passing us on the right! Many of the drivers showed agressive behaviour, running up behind or cutting right in front with a high-speed lane change.

Being a reformed speeder (I used to drive a Honda CRX), and now driving a minivan and a black Prius, I some opinions about agressive driving behavior:

1) Most people in this country think or feel that they have a God given right to do whatever they darn well want to do and laws exist only to keep other people from getting in their way. Okay, I know that is an exaggeration - most of us try to behave and want to be good neighbors - but come on, admit it, we all know that leash laws are only for bad dogs and speed limits are only for average drivers. Good drivers, like us, can saftly drive much faster than the posted speed limit.

Part of this comes from the American culture. America was built on wide-open spaces and individual freedom, and in many respects we haven't adjusted well to sharing our space with the increasing numbers of others. Our roads and highways are a microcosm of this.

2) Rushing. We are all too busy. It's the American way: rush, rush, rush. If we have a little free time, we schedule something in it, then rush over to do it, and rush back. Everyone is in a great big hurry, and they are all tring to make up for it on the highway. I don't have an easy solution for this, other than to tell people to take a deep breath and relax a bit. All of this stress and rushing is mostly self inflicted. We don't have to do it, we choose to do it to maintain our existing life styles.

3) Because it is fun. Speeding and agressively driving a high performance car is just plain fun. I can't argue this point, I can only remind people to be safe, and to remember that they have no right to speed, and no right to ANY lane of a highway at speeds above the posted limit. If slower cars are blocking the way, then they should move to the left lane and wait for the slower cars to get out of the way. It's hard for a slower car to move right when faster cars are sling-shotting by on both sides.

4) Passing to the right. Sometimes people pass on the right because it is the only open lane. This gets back to my previous comment about giving slower trafic a chance to move right. Other times faster cars preferentially pass on the right when it would be just as easy and certainly safer to pass to the left. Why is this? Being a reformed speeder, here is my take on this annoying and dangerous move: On the highway it is harder to get nailed by radar when you stay to the right. Get over there and hide behind those other cars. Maybe the police won't see me, and if they do, it will be hard to get a clear shot with the radar gun. I've done it, but I don't do it anymore. It's just a bad idea.

5) Are other drivers more agressive towards hybrids? I think it is a size issue, in general. I drive my big green Aerostar minivan at exactly the same speed as my little black Prius. Other cars don't come anywhere near as close to me in the Aerostar, and I don't think it has anything to do with it not being a hybrid. People are basically bullies when they get behind the wheel of an automobile, and a Prius looks pretty harmless. I think it is mostly an unconscious decision to cut closer because the Prius is small. That said, there are, of course, real bullies. I won't say what I think of them...

That's my rant for today. Anyone have more to add? Oh, and by the way, we love our new black #7!

Tom

 

Reality Check: Keep in mind that most vehicles exhibit a MPG sensitivity to driving habits that is much lower than the Prius.

When I struggle to improve fuel efficiency in my older minivan by lightly accelerating, cruising at lower speeds, anticipating stops and coasting to them, shutting off the motor at lights that'll be longer than a minute, not running the A/C, keeping the windows up, keeping it well maintained, upping the tire pressure, etc. then what I get for all this trouble is fairly significant, about a 10-15% improvement.

This 10-15% improvement amounts to an increase of only 2-3 MPG. I predict that most people who go to the trouble of quantifying their driving habits will give up going to great lengths to improve their fuel efficiency. On a single user basis, for most it's not worth the hassle.

 

Idoubt its the car you drive. It pisses me off no matter what car is preventing me from passing them.

qbee42 - its really true about rush rush rush - BUT have some empathy. Not any more but I USED to have to get to the adult day care to pick up my dad at 5:30 on the SPOT - they charged for every minute over. I got off work at 5:00 and had to pick up a child on the way.

Also some of the time I had to take my dad to Dr. (taking leave from work - so every minute counted)

Yes some people do schedule too much for their day - but often there is no other choice.

It used to irritate me to see my boss leisurely driving the speed limit with his latte as though he had not a care in the world. HE wasn't getting kids to school/soccer/dance - etc.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(palau @ Apr 16 2006, 11:00 PM) [snapback]240711[/snapback]</div>

There are a lot of stupid people out there, especially the ones who think that speeders have more rights than people who drive the speed limit. It never enters their empty little heads that perhaps they should be the ones to alter their speed by slowing down. It's a speed LIMIT not a speed minimum so, as KTPhil says, 'F*** 'em'. I've experienced that kind of goofball mentality, yes. I don't, necessarily, attribute it to which car I drive. Your mileage should go up as you learn the tricks of good gas mileage. When I first got my Prius last summer, I only got a little over 50 mpg at first but currently, I'm getting 56. It just takes some adjustment. The longer the trips you make, the better the mileage will be, too.

 

In the last week or two I've had a couple car speed up and go around me getting into a carpool lane. I would be interested in knowing if anyone else has seen this behavior. The only reason for this that makes sense is that driver thought my Prius was going to be too slow in the carpool lane. I will go up to 10 mph over the limit but that is about it. It was funny as I stayed right behind each of the cars that deemed it necessary to pass me.

Ken

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(H2OSkier @ Apr 17 2006, 12:01 PM) [snapback]240920[/snapback]</div>

Well, again, I don't believe it has to do with you or your car specifically. He could have been too impatient to wait for anyone. On the way to work this morning, I had a guy in a Honda Civic who was really unhappy to be stuck behind me as I was only going the speed limit. Later, it was a guy in a Toyota Camry who just couldn't wait to get out from behind me. Ah me.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(daniel @ Apr 17 2006, 05:53 AM) [snapback]240833[/snapback]</div>

In our state we have lots of drivers that love to stay in the left hand lane, regardless of the speed they're going. This is just bad road ettiquite, but it really boils the blood of some newcomers to the state and does slow the overall flow of traffic. In several eastern states and most of Europe, one might get run off the road for this.

Then again, this might be happening....

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(M. Oiseau @ Apr 17 2006, 09:51 AM) [snapback]240856[/snapback]</div>

True, it doesn't sound like much, and most people won't even notice a 10-15% improvement or reduction in their gas mileage. But, if you think of it as a 10-15% improvement in how much they pay each week to commute, the difference can be significant. I would hardly miss 15% of how much it takes for my weekly fillup, probably about $3. But, at 20 mpg, the money saved by getting 23 mpg would be 2.5 times my savings, or $7.50 a week.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(palau @ Apr 16 2006, 08:00 PM) [snapback]240711[/snapback]</div>

According to my wife (who just got back from traffic school), if you are going the speed limit and people come up behind you wanting to pass, and if they have the ability to pass on the left, ignore them.

Sometimes it can get dangerous, though. I have been cut off by one such angry driver (with appropriate hand signals), and I had to brake hard as the other car wasn't going as fast as I was (40mph in 40mph stretch). For the first time I found myself wishing that there was a black and white on my tail...

I have 1700 miles on my Prius #3, over 50 mpg so far. Try using the cruise control as much as possible, but drive safe.

 

It doesn't matter what kind of car you're driving, or what speed you are travelling relative to the speed limit.

I could be in the righthand lane doing 55mph in a 65 zone where the rest of traffic is doing 50-55 at rush hour and not find myself being passed or cut off or tailgated by any aggressive drivers at all.

I could be in the left lane or carpool lane of the same freeway doing 80, at or above the flow of traffic, and be passed and cut off and tailgated to no end.

If I do experience aggressive driving from others, I do my best to ignore it, not let it affect me, and drive defensively because I can't count on everyone around me to drive in a safe manner (yeah, like going 80 is safe, LOL), and I want to avoid any possible collissions and incidents no matter what my speed. If someone HAS to get around me and go 90 or faster when we're already going 80 as is the rest of traffic, then fine, let them go on their merry way and let it be.

Sometimes I like to drive slow (ie: the speed limit), sometimes I like to drive fast, er, a lot faster...it all depends on my mood and how much time I have to get to where I'm going. One thing that's for sure is I've got to pay attention to what's going on around me at all times, that's my main responsibility when I'm out on the road. If others have a problem with what I drive, that's their problem. If they have a problem with the way I drive, that's their problem too.

At least I'm NOT driving like the grandpa doing 20 in a 45 zone, weaving across lanes of traffic unknowingly in the process. Or the person with the cell phone glued to their ear so that they can't even be bothered to use their turn signal OR glance to see if the lane next to them is in fact open so they can merge into it without broadsiding another car. People can go around me and leave me in their dust for all I care.

 

When I see a car gaining on me in my rear view mirror, I signal and pull over to left and let it by if I'm doing less than the speed limit, the speed limit, or 85mph. I feel safer avoiding him when he is in front of me rather than keeping him behind me and making him avoid me.