Question for you California Drivers

I work on the hill just above Carmel. I do work night shift, so I don't have as much traffic as many folks. My mileage is better in warmer weather. I don't go above 65 (usually.) In mixed driving (city/highway) I average about 50 mpg.
I did recently take a trip to the Sacramento area with a full car, with the AC on, averaging about 70 mph. My mileage suffered. (Averaged about 46 mpg.)

 

Now that I constantly watch my fuel economy I find that it has become increasingly more difficult to maintain a steady (reasonable) speed. In my pre-Prius days I would go with the flow of traffic and set my cruise control to whatever speed the traffic happened to be going. Now, I try not to exceeed the posted speed limit and find that I am holding the traffic back. This is annoying to both me and them so I figured that I would try and set the cruise to the speed limit and try and select the lane that would allow that speed, allowing more lane changes than I would normally do. This resulted in a lot of lane changes (which I definitely don't feel good about) and I still couldn't maintain a constant crusing speed.

I don't really know what to try next, so I am now more cognizant of what time of day I drive and have been very happy to do all my driving during off-peak hours. In this way I found that I can cruise the highway all day long at 55.4 MPG which makes me very happy. This is OK until I have to commute with the rush hour traffic again, so I am doing my best to avoid that.

 

California drivers are always in a hurry. If you try to drive in best interest for your gas mileage, then your going to be getting the finger as people "fly" by you. So that is why most CA Prius owners only get about 40 to 50 mpg. I only get about 45mpg, but that is still a heck of a lot better than any other car on the road.

 

I get about 48 mpg lifetime (but current tank is 50.2 on the display).

I drive the speed limit, and use the right hand lane or middle lane. I use the cruise control, and I have not changed the tire pressure from the factory settings (I think it was 35 psi in all tires).

BTW, this morning, from the fill up in Costco, Camarillo to Northridge (about 800 foot elevation gain overall, some slightly higher hills) I got 52 mpg on the display.

 

Ken,

You certainly are right about the traffic. If I only had to drive to work I could average over 55 mpg. At 6:30 in the morning, there isn't a lot of traffic on the city street I take on my 12 mile commute to school. There are are at least 35 stop lights on that 12 mile stretch. (I counted one day). On the way to work I can often go a mile without having to stop. I will often see three or four bars close to 75 mpg. On the way home, I'm lucky if I don't have to stop at every light. I usually don't even get 50 mpg total on the way home. There is just no way to get really good mileage when you are starting and stopping every quarter mile. There is also no way to start briskly as the flow of traffic doesn't allow it.

On the freeway front, I go the speed limit and not over. If people want to pass me, let them. I haven't been flipped off yet, but I'm sure that will come.

Jeff

 

I think your right about California and it being hard to drive for gas millage. I only average ~43mpg but I have a bad commute for gas millage, about 1.5 miles with two stop lights (I'm not complaining though). I don't get much better when I do my occasional freeway trips. I was used to driving ~75 in my old car, which around here is just about average. I tend to drive slower with the prius but even in the slowest lane 65 is slow enough to cause a back up in traffic behind you. I've made up my mind that I would rather keep up with traffic then get an extra 3-4mpg.

 

I just went through my second tank of gas. Mileage was 51.2 mph according to the MFD and 50.5 by dividing the miles traveled by the amount pumped.

I keep my AC on manual, set to 74 degrees, at the lowest fan speed. Although it can get hot here, I stay very comfortable. Since tank #1, I increased my tire pressure to 42/40, and I've begun the practice of starting from a stop briskly to get up to speed. This improved, slightly, the results from tank #1.

My morning commute is about 10 miles, half surface streets, half freeway (which is often jammed up). Afternoon commute is just about all surface streets, with quite a bit of starting and stopping.