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[Kaotic Lazagna]

Originally Posted by Loren

Nice!

I had a good day yesterday, too. Average of about 53 (corrected to 50.3 due to tire size) for around 60 miles of cruising around town.

Will be interesting to see if my figures actually improve when I put a proper diameter tire back on the car.

How the heck do you do that!!!??? That's awesome. I top out at 42 mpg in the city, and that's on a good day.

[Loren]

Originally Posted by Kaotic Lazagna

How the heck do you do that!!!??? That's awesome. I top out at 42 mpg in the city, and that's on a good day.

DFCO and keeping a close eye on traffic.

Accelerate gently and try to start your coast as soon as you see you're going to have to slow down. (the light half a mile ahead is green, but you know the light and you're sure it will be red before you get there... COAST) Keep a long following distance so that you never have to brake (or don't have to brake much) because the car ahead of you is turning. Choose a route that lets you cruise at a steady pace somewhere between 40 and 50 mph. (around here, that means whichever major secondary road has the least traffic, as speed limits are almost all 40-45, and traffic flow is always 50-60... or stopped)

The hardest thing is keeping people off of your tail when accelerating. Have to balance being economical with not getting run over. Usually, the impatient ones will zip around me when they see 10 car lengths of space in front of me, so it's not a big deal except when traffic is really dense. (and more often than not, they end up in the wrong lane at the next light and I casually stroll past them again)

Honestly, I don't think I'd do nearly as well if I weren't real-time monitoring. It's the "trip average" that I can constantly keep making obvious improvements to that keeps me at it. As I've said before... it's all a game for me. For as little as I drive, it wouldn't kill me to get 25 mpg. But, striving for better MPG is more challenging and safer (and generally more legal, except for the occasional rolled-through stop sign) than my old habit of "how fast can I take this curve today?"