Traffic sucks . . . but the mpg doesn't

Actually, you want to avoid getting green cars, by avoiding braking when possible. Reason being, there are losses for the kinetic to electric to chemical conversions, and then the reverse when you use what you stored.

Think of it this way: you pour water from one glass to another, to another, then drink. You don't get all the water you start with, some sticks to the glasses. If you did this often enough, you'd have no water to drink.

Now one of course has to brake sometimes, and it is better to brake and store some of that energy as reusable battery power. That's better than nothing, but it isn't everything.

Supposedly it is the same situation with getting green (7 or 8) bars, but at least it makes the appearance of more efficiency as my MPG is quite a bit higher when I get past the upper bounds of 6 bars. However, that was probably at the expense of excess engine power earlier.

 

Congratulations on getting your Prius Ester. I know you have been waiting a while.

Dan is right, your GOAL isn't to get as many green leaf cars as possible. However, even when you are driving 'Prius style' and coasting (within reason) to signals, planning or hoping to hit them after they change green without annoying the people behind you that just don't get it, you will regen and sometimes get leaf-cars. You will also get them if you are coasting down hill if the grade is enough to maintain speed.

One thing I found helpful MPG wise was Dr. Evan's description of 'moderate acceleration': Fast enough to get arrows from the engine to the wheels and from the engine to the electric motor to the wheels. No arrows to or from the battery. I need concrete, measurable descriptions
That way, all the gas that is burned is used to move the car NOW rather than incurring the losses going to and returning from the battery. Once you get to speed, the engine will happily charge the battery as all its power isn't needed to keep the car at speed unless you are going up hill.

You will notice that at highway speeds, even on gentle hils, the ICE still has more oomph than needed to keep the car going and will be charging the battery.

 

actually avoiding green cars is not possible in traffic since they can be generated by simply going up and down hills without braking. Coasting in drive will do it also.

if you make the trip without braking then that is where you want to be. keep in mind that keeping a larger than normal following distance in heavy traffic may piss off the person behind you, but it will only lengthen your trip by seconds