KM to the Tank

[jambo101]

Voodoo22 you are doing it right,you should give a write up on your driving techniques so we may all benefit from your success..
We can only dream of 800-900km tanks,taking it easy i can probably get around 700kms.

[dybbuk]

Originally Posted by voodoo22

For me it's normal driving, for most people they would say hypermiling, because I drive 80-90km/h on the highway and think a lot while driving to maximize safety.

Originally Posted by jambo101

Voodoo22 you are doing it right,you should give a write up on your driving techniques so we may all benefit from your success..
We can only dream of 800-900km tanks,taking it easy i can probably get around 700kms.

I'm all for fuel economy. I would question the safety of driving 20-30kph below the posted speed limit let alone the average flow of traffic. If the posted speed limit is 110kph I'm surprised you haven't got a ticket for driving too slow actually. It is great economy though, I top out around 625/ or so. I'm 95% city driving; short trips, usually just to work and home (10km each way) or out to my parents (25km each way).

[voodoo22]

Originally Posted by dybbuk

I'm all for fuel economy. I would question the safety of driving 20-30kph below the posted speed limit let alone the average flow of traffic. If the posted speed limit is 110kph I'm surprised you haven't got a ticket for driving too slow actually. It is great economy though, I top out around 625/ or so. I'm 95% city driving; short trips, usually just to work and home (10km each way) or out to my parents (25km each way).

I never drive more than 20 km/h under the speed limit unless traffic is jammed or something else is causing people to slow down. I try to stay just over 80 km/h, but I will go down to 80 as a basement speed. I always stay in the right lane. There are usually 2 and sometimes 4 or 5 other lanes for people to pass me on when I'm on the 401.

There are no posted speed limits of 110 where I drive. Only 100, and many people don't seem to understand that is the suggested maximum, no the minimum. There are no signs here like I've seen in Quebec where they say 100 maximum 80 minimum. I think those types of signs should be mandatory to help people understand that 100 is supposed to be the maximum.

I've had police drive by me slowly while I'm going 80, but unless I give them reasons to think I'm intoxicated they have no reason to pull me over and I will never get a ticket. I am a courteous, defensive driver who chooses to not drive the posted maximum speed.

From what I've read it's not considered safe to go 25% slower than other traffic. I'm going less than 20% slower and believe it or not I have far less people flashing their brights, cutting me off and gesturing, honking their horn etc when I started driving 80-90 vs any other speed range. 100-110 was the worst for agitating these ragers for some reason. 90-100 wasn't far off.

People who argue I should drive flow of traffic 100% of the time, don't hold water in my book. Why should I engage in a practice which is held by speeders, unsafe drivers and people who care more about being able to leave late and arrive on time than the safety of people around them? Going less than the flow of traffic when needed to increase the gap between me and the vehicle in front of me is the only way I'm able to control my safety while I'm tailgated. I do my best to keep a space between me and the car in front of me to make up for the fact that I'm most likely getting tailgated by someone who will be unable to stop in time if something happens. Knowing the space in front of me will do no good with the tailgater is something happens to my vehicle I vigilantly maintain the Yaris to do my best to prevent a failure of any sort on the highway.

I would have thought my behaviour was surprising a few years ago as well, but you'd probably be surprised at how practicing this behaviour plays out in the real world... in my driving situation anyways.

[dybbuk]

Originally Posted by voodoo22

I never drive more than 20 km/h under the speed limit unless traffic is jammed or something else is causing people to slow down. I try to stay just over 80 km/h, but I will go down to 80 as a basement speed. I always stay in the right lane. There are usually 2 and sometimes 4 or 5 other lanes for people to pass me on when I'm on the 401.

There are no posted speed limits of 110 where I drive. Only 100, and many people don't seem to understand that is the suggested maximum, no the minimum. There are no signs here like I've seen in Quebec where they say 100 maximum 80 minimum. I think those types of signs should be mandatory to help people understand that 100 is supposed to be the maximum.

I've had police drive by me slowly while I'm going 80, but unless I give them reasons to think I'm intoxicated they have no reason to pull me over and I will never get a ticket. I am a courteous, defensive driver who chooses to not drive the posted maximum speed.

From what I've read it's not considered safe to go 25% slower than other traffic. I'm going less than 20% slower and believe it or not I have far less people flashing their brights, cutting me off and gesturing, honking their horn etc when I started driving 80-90 vs any other speed range. 100-110 was the worst for agitating these ragers for some reason. 90-100 wasn't far off.

People who argue I should drive flow of traffic 100% of the time, don't hold water in my book. Why should I engage in a practice which is held by speeders, unsafe drivers and people who care more about being able to leave late and arrive on time than the safety of people around them? Going less than the flow of traffic when needed to increase the gap between me and the vehicle in front of me is the only way I'm able to control my safety while I'm tailgated. I do my best to keep a space between me and the car in front of me to make up for the fact that I'm most likely getting tailgated by someone who will be unable to stop in time if something happens. Knowing the space in front of me will do no good with the tailgater is something happens to my vehicle I vigilantly maintain the Yaris to do my best to prevent a failure of any sort on the highway.

I would have thought my behaviour was surprising a few years ago as well, but you'd probably be surprised at how practicing this behaviour plays out in the real world... in my driving situation anyways.

I can't speak for the 401/407/QEW experience very much. In NB the divided highway is 110 all the way, so that's where I pulled that number from. The police also can absolutely pull you over if you're going slower then the flow of traffic or usually 30kph under the limit (I know it's in some state laws even though it's not posted on the highways). I work for FedEx in NB and one of our agent carriers gets pulled over bi-weekly because he drives a plain white van with no banners. His route is timed out all day. From 5:30am-7:00pm. He's usually travelling 10-20 kph under the limit because there's no pint in going faster. Perhaps it's the difference between OPH and RCMP, but, many law enforcement agencies say the safest way to travel is travelling with the flow of traffic. I do however agree in a hyper aggressive environment certain steps need to be taken. When I read 80 (and me being used to highways at 110) I automatically drew the conclusion of 30 under. Especially on our sparse NB highways. My apologies for drawing conclusions, however it makes the image much clearer after qualifying/quantifying some things. A blanket statement of going 80kph could get some people killed is all. And in NB is says 110 Maximum. It doesn't say MAX in Ont?

[voodoo22]

Originally Posted by jambo101

Voodoo22 you are doing it right,you should give a write up on your driving techniques so we may all benefit from your success..
We can only dream of 800-900km tanks,taking it easy i can probably get around 700kms.

Hi Jambo101. 700km tanks is nothing to be disappointed about.

I've tried to lay out my driving technique for comparison etc on the CleanMPG site in this thread:

http://www.cleanmpg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15945

I can't stress enough that it's safety first under any circumstance. The only reason I started to drive like this was to lower the possibility of me getting killed by the psycho's who drive the 401. When I first moved to Ontario I had a brand new 330i and thought I would love the faster traffic. After getting tailgated whether I was driving 100 or 160 (yes 160 and getting tailgated on the 407), and getting cut off wildly among other hair raising experiences (I saw a g35 merge, fly by me, weave in and out of traffic, then flip and roll multiple times before catching on fire. I later read the driver died. I never drove like that, but when you drive faster more aggressively someone like that can cause you more problems.) I slowly started to change my driving habits. After several months of driving defensively all the time, I realized my car didn't make sense anymore for my driving style and changing lifestyle, so we got the Yaris. It's taken me over 3 years of gradual change to get to where I am now, so it may seem extreme to people who are currently where I was over 3 years ago. I can only speak from my personal experience, but as I changed my style, my safety level began to drastically increase, stress level of driving began to plummet and I was surprised to see my fuel efficiency start to go up more than I expected. I started paying closer attention to Bailouts writings and through his old signature found CleanMPG. I realized not only was this new me driving as defensively as I could saving me psychologically, if I applied some other techniques I could start to see some benefits in other areas such as saving on gas, spending less time at the gas station and lowering future maintenance costs on our car. I took baby steps to get to where I am now, and I know I'm not doing anything special. Given similar cars and driving conditions anyone can get and better the numbers and lower stress levels I have achieved, it just takes discipline.

I have to say this again, because people read about techniques and say oh that's not safe etc etc, but I always put my safety first and would never under any circumstance put my safety at risk to save a few dollars in gas. There are people who get over 120 US mpg consistently because their driving conditions allow them to do so. If I tried to drive like them I would have a very dangerous commute and be putting other people at risk and it's exactly the opposite goals which have turned me into this driver I am today.