The Legend grows

My experience is that behind any flat bed truck will reduce your mileage, unless your 300 yards back, in which case its similar to driving without any vehicle in front of you. There is just too much turbulence off them. The only way to get more mileage out of following a flat bed tractor, is to be parked on the flatbed itself.

 

There are different levels of hypermilers just as there is different levels of aggressive driving. Hypermiling is really just making changes to your driving to increase your mpg beyond the EPA estimates. That can include a wide range of techniques from coasting, to pulsing and gliding, and more extreme techniques.

I have seen some a description of some of Wayne's techniques from long ago, so I have some idea of what they entail. However, I don't automatically assume that he is being an unsafe driver. In some situations, I can see your example being unsafe while I can think of other roads in which it would not be unsafe. My point is that I think aggressive drivers are more likely to be unsafe than a hypermiler, being that hypermilers are often much more concerned/aware of what is going on the road.