I've started seeing stories recently about hypermiling, which is the practice of using driving techniques designed to maximize fuel economy. It sounds perfectly reasonable to do this, and I practice this to a certain extent, myself, but it's being pushed to ridiculous extremes by some of its practitioners. I've been seeing people doing this on the highway around me and some of these nincompoops are seriously ******* me off with how far they're willing to go in order to eke out every last inch of road from their fuel!
Yesterday on the way to work, I caught up to a woman in a Prius who was only doing 35 mph in a 55 mph zone, and over the next few miles her speed would slowly creep up to about 50 mph when going on downhill grades and she would let her car slow down to about 30 mph on uphill grades. Then we passed through a small village where the speed limit is 40 mph for about a mile except for the school zone which is 20 mph when there are elementary kids going in and out of the building (which there were at the time). She drove right through the whole town at 45 mph so that she wouldn't have to use her brake.
When I caught up to her again she was letting her car coast to a stop at a stop sign starting from a mile away. After this, of course, she took over two miles of pavement to get up to 45 mph again. This is a busy highway with lots of traffic (dozens of cars were lined up behind me by this time) and it wasn't possible to pass her because of the steady stream of oncoming traffic. She was also hugging the inside radius of every curve, riding the shoulder on right hand curves and hugging the center line on left hand curves, once even driving in the left lane when there was a gap in oncoming traffic. After being stuck behind her for almost nine ******* miles, I was finally able to pass this smug jerk and I laid on the horn and flipped her off while yelling obscenities at her as I went by (which she ignored because I sure she's used to getting that all the time, by now). I also noticed how she had a giant dent in the back of her almost new Prius, which I assume she must have gotten when someone plowed into her from behind, not expecting her to be driving 25 mph less than the posted speed limit.
I want to point out that I'm not the type who gets easily aggravated by stupid things that I see other drivers do. I drive in the heavy traffic in the Chicago 'burbs to and from work five times a week and I'm perfectly happy ignoring all the obstructive driving, slow driving, dangerous driving and other boneheaded driving I see taking place all the time because it realize that it simply can't be helped in most cases and there's no use getting upset over it. But this is a brand new type of driving that is all types of bad driving rolled up into one; it's practitioners are obstructing other traffic by driving slowly and pretty much ignoring posted speed limits and driving erratically and dangerously at the same time. And they're doing it on purpose and encouraging more people to do it as well.
Hypermiling is a good idea taken to a ridiculous extreme and it is my plan to honk at, flip off, and yell at everyone whom I see doing it. If the kooks obsessed with fuel economy doing this get yelled at often enough, maybe they'll stop.
Yesterday on the way to work, I caught up to a woman in a Prius who was only doing 35 mph in a 55 mph zone, and over the next few miles her speed would slowly creep up to about 50 mph when going on downhill grades and she would let her car slow down to about 30 mph on uphill grades. Then we passed through a small village where the speed limit is 40 mph for about a mile except for the school zone which is 20 mph when there are elementary kids going in and out of the building (which there were at the time). She drove right through the whole town at 45 mph so that she wouldn't have to use her brake.
When I caught up to her again she was letting her car coast to a stop at a stop sign starting from a mile away. After this, of course, she took over two miles of pavement to get up to 45 mph again. This is a busy highway with lots of traffic (dozens of cars were lined up behind me by this time) and it wasn't possible to pass her because of the steady stream of oncoming traffic. She was also hugging the inside radius of every curve, riding the shoulder on right hand curves and hugging the center line on left hand curves, once even driving in the left lane when there was a gap in oncoming traffic. After being stuck behind her for almost nine ******* miles, I was finally able to pass this smug jerk and I laid on the horn and flipped her off while yelling obscenities at her as I went by (which she ignored because I sure she's used to getting that all the time, by now). I also noticed how she had a giant dent in the back of her almost new Prius, which I assume she must have gotten when someone plowed into her from behind, not expecting her to be driving 25 mph less than the posted speed limit.
I want to point out that I'm not the type who gets easily aggravated by stupid things that I see other drivers do. I drive in the heavy traffic in the Chicago 'burbs to and from work five times a week and I'm perfectly happy ignoring all the obstructive driving, slow driving, dangerous driving and other boneheaded driving I see taking place all the time because it realize that it simply can't be helped in most cases and there's no use getting upset over it. But this is a brand new type of driving that is all types of bad driving rolled up into one; it's practitioners are obstructing other traffic by driving slowly and pretty much ignoring posted speed limits and driving erratically and dangerously at the same time. And they're doing it on purpose and encouraging more people to do it as well.
Hypermiling is a good idea taken to a ridiculous extreme and it is my plan to honk at, flip off, and yell at everyone whom I see doing it. If the kooks obsessed with fuel economy doing this get yelled at often enough, maybe they'll stop.
