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June 09, 2008
Increasing Mileage Just by Driving Smoothly
I came across an interesting blog post about whether hypermiling is worth it. It's interesting what this guy says about driving smoothly; that by minimizing braking & acceleration helps increase mileage. In fact, Wikipedia actually considers it one of the techniques used in hypermiling. I've intuitively known this all along, and I've been able to increase my mileage by (what I think is) about 25% without doing any extreme hypermiling techniques. By simply driving slower on cruise, I don't have to hit the brakes too much because most people are already going faster than me. The only times I really have to brake & accelerate is when I get into the unavoidable traffic jam.
As far as hypermiling goes, even if you could double your mileage, there are some techniques that can potentially compromise safety. For example, some hypermilers shut off their engines while coasting (and later restart). The way people drive around here, you have to be ready for anything, so I wouldn't give up total control of the car for fear of not being able to avoid accidents.
Posted by Amy at June 9, 2008 03:15 PM
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