Hypermiling - The new menace on the road?

The other day I’m following a Honda Insight hybrid driving rather quickly down a hill. But as the hill flattens and we start climbing another hill, the little Insight slows down. As we approach an intersection, I see the light has just turned green and I’m sure we’ll make it. But we’re still climbing and the Insight is continues to shed speed. Finally, the light turns yellow and then red. But instead of stopping, the Insight drives right through the red light and continues puttering down the road.

Was this driver driving slowly to be safety conscious? No. I was following one of the new breed of fuel-sipping fanatics that are menacing our roads. (And you know who you are!) The driver of the Insight was doing everything to maximize fuel mileage. Speeding down hills to maintain momentum, slowing up the hills to prevent pressing too hard on the gas pedal, coasting through red lights, and even tailgating semi-trucks to save fuel are all symptoms of this new threat to drivers everywhere.

The phenomenon is encouraged by the colorful fuel economy displays in some hybrids that have turned driving into a video game. The point of this game is to get the highest score... er… mpg figure. Why? Some probably believe they’re minimizing their strain on the earth, but more likely they’re looking for bragging rights. Maybe you’re trying to keep your Prius-o-meter above 50 mpg so you can post your results on Priuschat.com. Maybe people keep asking you what kind of mileage you get on your hybrid, and you want more impressive figures to report. Or perhaps you just want prove to your spouse that you know the right way to drive your new green machine.

Don’t get me wrong—there’s nothing wrong with driving to maximize fuel economy. I try to do the same and have to admit that I have a hard time not staring at the pretty fuel consumption screen on my wife’s Prius. But there are many ways to modify your driving to maximize fuel economy and not become a rolling road hazard. In fact, sites like Hypermiling.com and cleanmpg.com promote many safe and effective ways to maximize fuel economy. But you should always be courteous to others around you. And, yes, a Prius can make it up the hills without losing speed if you push your right foot down a bit. Most importantly, watch the road not the fuel economy gauge. You’ll make the roadways safer for all, and may even help non-hybrids save fuel with an even, predictable driving manner.

—Jake Fisher

For more suggestions on how to live more green, visit Consumer Union's Web site Greenerchoices.org and our Earth Day special section. For tips on saving gasoline and alternative fuels, see our fuel economy guide.

Comments

[Bill]

Excellent post, Jake. I too have encountered this phenomena, and since we're both in CT (I think we met at a CR auto press event) we may be encountering the same drivers! I've yet to drive a hybrid that didn't have acceptable acceleration, and when I review them I try to drive them hard to see how well they do under worse-case situations. It all comes down to common sense driving, and as you said paying attention to traffic. As a motorcyclist, the hypermilers are just a new type of distracted drivers on the road which is never a good thing.

[Tkil]

I fully agree that nobody (hypermiling or otherwise) should break the law to try to improve their MPG. I have probably chanced a few yellow lights myself, but I've never gone through a red.

It's a shame that more people don't realize that simply driving a modern hybrid (my experience is with the 2004-current Prius) in a moderate way (brisk acceleration, coasting where possible, gentle brake to maximize battery regen, maintaining appropriate speed bounds, etc) can return 2x the economy of a similar car driven in a similar way.

My own experience was switching from a Subaru (1995 Legacy L AWD) to a current-gen Prius (2005). I consciously moderated my driving habits, and can regularly get 50mpg at 65mph freeway driving. That's more than double what the Subaru returned (22mpg), but that was a much more aggressive driving style. Driving the Suby after a few months in the Prius had me hitting 30mph in the Subaru -- a 40% improvement over my previous performance in that car.

[Chuck Thomas]

Did Consumer Reports interview hypermilers prior to publising this? Through research is CR's reputation, but sadly I seriously doubt that is the case in this instance. Talk to the hypermilers at www.priuschat.com and www.cleanmpg.com and you will find the majority of them advocate defensive driving to another level. For myself, I take the rightmost lane, accomodate drivers entering/exiting the freeway, tend to avoid rush hour when possible, let drivers behind pass in every way possible.

What kind of driving waste's time and gas? The speeder that causes a wreck in our large urban areas! Last week 1-2 thousand in gridlock, each of them runing at least 25% more gas, not to mention the rubberneckers on the other side - this the the hazard that needs to be reported.

I look forward to CR covering hypermiling in their typical manner rather than a cursory unresearched Op/ED.

[lightfoot]

Wow, extrapolating from one incident to a phenomenon. I commute in CT too and have seen only one incident of intentional drafting (a Civic about a year ago) and have NEVER seen anyone coasting through red lights to save fuel. I drive an Insight and do not do these things myself. As for speeding up on downhills, I avoid that too: if the downhill is steep enough, I use it to regenerate the battery (which keeps the car from accelerating), otherwise I coast down it at constant speed. On uphills, I maintain the speed limit on two-lane roads where passing is limited.

Generally, I try to avoid impeding other people, at least the ones observing the speed limits. I'm sorry that Insight kept you from making that red light and peeved you.

Speeders are a more prevalent and serious problem, as are people gabbing on their cell phones, often illegal handheld ones. At least people driving for mpg are paying attention to driving and not multi-tasking.

Like tkil, I found that driving a hybrid has taught me to drive my Subaru far more efficiently.

[Kent Johnson]

Jake, bad article. Quite presumptious. You observe a hybrid breaking the law and do a hyper-jump from there, to use the violation to bash an entire group of people. Those types of generalizations are not part of good journalistic practices.

Furthermore, without any proof whatsoever, you tag this person as a hypermiler. Did you confirm this with the driver? of course not. You assume, and then vent with the force of your own bias.

You would do well to contact Wayne Gerdes at cleanmpg.com, to educate yourself prior to making such stupid assumptions. But, perhaps fair journalism is not your intent. You'd be really surprized at what you'd discover, if you'd only scratch the surface. Instead, it appears your aim is to denegrate entire groups of people with falsehoods and poor assumptions.

[SpartyBrutus]

Jake - sorry you actually ran across another driver who was breaking the law. I would have been upset too. I suppose many hybrid owners look forward to saving fuel. Some may accellerate or drive too slowly for your tastes.

On the other hand, I see drivers breaking the law around me every day as I drive at the speed limit. Many of these drivers ALSO seem to be distracted by their cell phones,500W subwoofers or their "pretty" tachometers. I agree that ALL drivers should keep their eyes on the road - especially if you want to be able to "roll" through GREEN lights.

Peace.

[Steve]

Using a single instance of illegal behavior by a single person to condemn a whole class of people is not just wrong. When you are writing as a journalist, it is unethical. You should know better. Shame on you.

Your own experience shows that changes in driving style can yield a 40% improvement in fuel economy. That is worthwhile. If most people drove in that manner, gasoline demand would drop enough to force the price significantly lower.

Of course, some people who try to improve their fuel economy will do foolish things. That is not due to the attempt to improve fuel economy. It is because some fraction of people will do foolish things, no matter what kind of car they are driving or how they are driving it.

[Jennifer]

Not a very informed nor informative article. Poor driving is poor driving, not a function of hypermiling. Really disappointing article.

[Bruce F]

Over the years I've come to count on Consumer Reports for balanced, unbiased information. This blog is obviously neither. One casual observation of one hybrid driver does NOT constitute a "new development and trend".

[joe]

Driving to maximize fuel economy isn't safe driving.

Using an incident to illustrate what is unsafe is helpful. They are called examples, and are not sweeping generalizations.

I have no problem with 50-55 MPH drivers in the right lanes. Highways are for everyone and low speeds saves fuel and some perfer to not race.

I do think drivers who vary their speed and driving distances to maximize fuel efficiency are road hazards as are speeding srivers who cut in an out of traffic. It causes backups which waste fuel.

[HemiSync]

One person in a hybrid runs a red light and you chose to condemn an entire group of people. On a regular basis, I see drivers in all makes & models of vehicles not obeying traffic signs & signals. Everyday I drive my civic hybrid at the speed "limit" and have people blowing by me at 10 to 30 miles over the "limit" almost constantly and sometimes while performing very dangerous maneuvers, all of which is against the law. I am so sorry that you were inconvenienced by someone losing a little speed while going up a hill, but as someone once said about limits, that made a great deal of sense to me, "It's a speed limit, not a requirement."

If this is the level of journalism that CR has stooped to, then you can most assuredly consider my subscriptions canceled.

[Jake Fisher]

The purpose of this post was not to attack hypermiling in general. I thought that was clearly stated in the last paragraph. The problem is those who take fuel-sipping techniques to the extreme and allow safety to take a back-seat. Believe me, as a Prius owner, I appreciate hybrids and the value of extreme fuel economy.

[Eric]

To me, maintaining a larger-than-average following distance and try to properly "read" traffic lights are the best techniques for hypermiling. I would NEVER run a red light, but I have definitely learned the tendencies of all the traffic lights on my daily commute so that I can usually avoid using my brakes.

Somebody above decried large following distances as unsafe. It seems to me that the "normal" following distance that drivers use is the unsafe one, as there's no way it provides sufficient stopping distance in the event of an accident in front of you.

As to preferences about other drivers' speed, I'll quote George Carlin (roughly): "Anyone who drives slower than me is an idiot and anyone who drivers faster is an (expletive omitted)"

[Bob Wilson]

I have to admit a certain amount of amusement at:

- Honda Insight was the bad example
- Castigating PriusChat for 'bragging' the Insight style driving

An active member of PriusChat, I know 'bragging rights' is not high on their list. In fact, you find a lot 'signature' blocks from the responsible' CleanMPG from those who take an interest in driving style.

I expect neither accuracy nor fairness in a blog. Instead, I'm amused that a Honda Insight was used as an example to criticize a forum that is particularly mild about ego driving games.

Bob Wilson

[eddie]

To Eric:

The George Carlin joke goes, "Have you ever noticed that anyone who wants to drive slower than you is an idiot and that anyone who wants to drive faster than you is insane?" He is implying that everyone is the perfect driver by their own standards, but since that everyone standards are different, we all drive around AS IF we were perfect!

[Jack]

Jake, I see what you describe every day, and it has nothing to do with gas mileage. It has to do with some of the idiots that drive on our roads. I live in Massachusetts, and people slowing down going up hill is the norm, not the exception (same with slowing around a bend in the highway at 65mph).I actually have met people who really thought that the light changing yellow meant they should speed up because it was going to change red. And I can not count the number of times I has slowed for a yellow light, only to be passed by the person behind me so they can try to make the light (and usually don't).
I am not saying that there are not people out there that try to maximize their mileage, but it is really hard to figure out if they are hypermiling or just being stupid.

[Dan Wright]

Jake, stating "Don’t get me wrong—there’s nothing wrong with driving to maximize fuel economy" in the last paragraph doesn't make this look any less like an attack on hypermiling. The blog entry is entitled "Hypermiling - The new menace on the road?" and you refer to "this new threat to drivers everywhere" as a "phenomenon" more than once.

I've been an active hypermiler for over a year and have never heard of -- let alone observed -- anyone running a red light to save fuel economy. To call this a phenomenon or a threat to drivers everywhere is completely ridiculous, and I hope you'll retract the entry.

I'll tell you what IS a phenomenon and a real menace: the media constantly slamming hypermilers for being "unsafe." Every time hypermiling makes the media, it's always slanted to make us look like unsafe drivers. The stories always focus on truck drafting, which probably 95% of us never, EVER do, or on coasting with the engine off, which provides a minimal benefit and is certainly not the central technique. I don't think I've ever seen a story in the media whose tone didn't end up being that you can save a lot of fuel by hypermiling, but at the cost of safety.

Nothing could be further from the truth. I just participated in a fuel economy rally this weekend as part of an alternative energy fair in Lacey, WA, and achieved 62mpg (37% above EPA estimates) over a 90 mile course in a stock 2000 Golf TDI. I broke no laws in the process except going 5mph over the speed limit on a couple of occasions. No drafting of anyone, no red light running, and no engine-off except while STOPPED at red lights. And I kept it near the speed limit the whole way, especially when there were other cars behind me.

The message that the public needs to hear is that it's possible to save a LOT of fuel (I'm up 30% over the past year, saving a tank a month) by altering your driving style, WITHOUT sacrificing safety or very much time. It's a message a lot of people don't want to hear -- who wants to be told that their driving is costing them 25% or more in fuel?? People will use any excuse to dismiss such results, and articles like yours falsely give them the perfect excuse: safety. In fact, hypermilers are among the most alert drivers on the road and largely travel close to the speed limit -- that's probably many times safer than the 65-70-75mph speeds that are becoming increasingly common even on urban freeways.

[Insight Owner]

Thanks a lot. I own an Insight, and do not consider myself a "hypermiler". I'm a courteous driver who mostly sticks to the right lane. I'm generally going about 5 mph over the speed limit on the highway, and don't slow down more than 5mph while going up hills, if even that much.

I'm the freak who isn't driving a land yacht at maximum ineficiency, and am frequently treated like a 98 lb weakling on the roads, despite the fact that the Insight's performance is in the middle of the pack of modern cars. I get tailgated at 5 over in the right lane even when there are open lanes to my left. I try to be courteous to other drivers, despite the fact that I get little if any courtesy in return.

And now you've labeled me a menace.

ME: 5mph over, right lane, signal when changing lanes or exiting, don't slow down excessively when going over hills, don't drive a vision-obstructing tank, don't talk on the phone while driving.

MOST OTHER DRIVERS: pretty much the opposite of the above.

It is pretty obvious which type of driving is a real menace.

[Speedzzter]

Who cares what "hypermilers" do as long as they STAY OUT OF THE WAY!

Even though I am a fairly efficient driver, I do admit to "throwing revs" with my V8 when passing "appliance motorist" hybrid drivers who have been impeding the flow of traffic (usually on off-ramps because of either their lack of driving skill or the abysmal roadholding ability of their pizza-cutter-sized tires). It's also fun to do the Michael Schumacher "chop" move once clear of their slow-moving front bumpers and then blast away (knowing that their "greener-than-thou" sensibilities are likely offended). And I absolutely refuse to yield the slow lane for hybrid drivers who can't seem to figure out that freeway on-ramps are for ACCELERATION to merging speeds

Such disapprobation is worth the loss of one or two mpg per tank.

[James Byrne]

What a lame article. One guy runs a light in a hybrid and that makes the whole group a bunch of penny pinching nut cases.

I drive a honda insight at 65MPH in the right lane (on the Mass. Pike, Springfield to Boston, for the last three weeks). I get 70 MPG at the speed limit. No need to screw around and hypermile...

Every day in my commute I see EVERYONE passing me in the right and center lane. Either people are stupid or don't care that they use 15% more fuel at 80MPH vs 65MPH. Save yourself 50 cents a gallon and drive the speed limit. What a concept.

I'm wondering where the breaking point for most drivers is going to be where they slow down. I thought $3/Gal would slow people down but, there's no effect. Maybe later this summer when gas hits $5/Gal.....

[valerie]

i for one applaud you for standing up and stating your opinion. there are MANY techniques that hypermilers employ that do not belong on public roads any more than a speeder does! i've been watching the hypermiler trend balloon with ballooning gas prices and i too am quite disturbed by this. there may be a few souls out there capable of paying uber attention to every last detail of their driving all the while not causing any more potential harm to anyone around them, but just as so many hypermiling advocates have stated, their are tons on cell phones and playing with gadgets and wacthing the darn mpg's screens in their vehicles. not many are capable of the extreme amount of concentration required to multitask to the level of hypermiling and it shows. i've had this discussion with the hypermiler god wayne gerdes countless times and he always manages to walk away without giving ANY plausable information as to how to prevent people employing the hypermiling tactics from causing any undue danger to themselves, their passengers, or other vehicles, pedestrians, bicyclists, etc. all he will tell you is he will personally teach you how to do it. no thanks. if i need to save gas i will gladly walk, bike, carpool, etc and employ those SAFE methods to do so and i will also abide by the laws regarding those activities as well.

there are so many things wrong with hypermiling (and YES i am educated on the subject and have watched this phenomena balloon over the years). and yes, i entirely hope that some hypermiler (such as wayne) causes a major accident and someone sues the pants off of them and this entire thing is put to rest. wayne will tell you there is no way with his uber attentive driving that he will ever cause an accident..... my money is on him causing a major tie up one of these days by at the bare minimum flipping his own vehicle over.

ps~i have VERY little respect for a man who pushes hypermiling all the while owning an suv and engaging in these "races" to see who can get the best mpgs. why not stop and save those gallons of gas and WALK wayne and other hypermilers?????????

[high mpg'er]

People going well over the speed limit in high horsepower vehicles, accelerating up hills, are much more dangerous and inconsiderate than those of us who try to conserve gas. It's the former group who needs to mature.

[anewone]

Running red lights is not a "new menace", just the same OLD menace it has always been - done by people who would do it at any speed and no thought of either safety or fuel economy.

As for speed, you would do well to note what it says on the signs on the road - Speed LIMIT - suggesting a maximum, not minimum speed. If someone drives below the limit, go around them. Does being courteous mean that those with the good sense to drive more economically must fall in line with the speeding morons who tailgate, run red lights, cause accidents and a whole lot more in addition to wasting gas just to get somewhere a lousy 15 seconds sooner?

[John L]

Obviously, Hypermiling did not teach the exampled vehicle to run a red light. Thus, the example is flawed.

That said, efficiencies gained by gas saving techniques are going to offend other drivers who do not regard the value of those efficiencies.

For instance, on the interstate, in the right lane, it is much more efficient for my Honda Odyssey to stay on three cylinders as long as possible using the "Variable Cylinder Management" system.

To maximize this performance, you cannot keep a constant speed. You try to go faster down hill and slower uphill. For smaller hills, I can stay on 3 cylinders for miles, and boost the gas mileage to 28 MPG.

Frankly, this will just annoy other drivers. So, we have to choose: is MPG efficiency more important than driver convenience. Maybe if the gas price is $10 a gallon, but not at $4 a gallon, and most likely $5 a gallon will not change it much.

Personally, I try to minimize annoying other drivers by varying my speed within 5 miles per hour, or finding trucks that already drive slower uphill and faster downhill.

In now way should one break a law or put economy over safety, though. A life is more important than efficiencies gained--any day.

-John L

[Gershon]

If I see my going slowly will cause the person behind me to miss a red light I'll speed up a bit. This isn't entirely altruistic. I know that by speeding up a bit to the speedlimit, I'll be able to arrive at the next light while it is still green.

I also ride on two wheels. Yes, hypermilers add another facet to riding, but not a dangerous ones. They tend to be very predictable and don't change lanes often. They also tend to be slow pulling out of intersections which gives me more time to react.

Hypermilers are hypersafe as they must carefully observe the traffic around them in order to get the best mileage.

Your one-sided report makes me question the accuracy of everything in Consumer Reports. What kind of editor would let an article like yours get printed?