Disclaimers: I'm not a Hybrid owner. My next car will be a hybrid. I own a Honda Element and a Hyundai Elantra. I average about 24mpg in the Element and about 29 in the Elantra.

My circumstance is that my office is 30 miles from my house. That's a 60-mile roundtrip. If I did that 5 days a week, I would burn through approximately 12 gallons of fuel.

My other options:

1) Carpool. I share rides with 2 of my coworkers during the week. So, maximum, I drive 150 miles a week commuting instead of 300. (I have to drive a few miles to where we all meet.)

2) Ride the bus. I can get from my house to my office without driving at all, although there's a half-mile walk included on each end of that. I should note, however, that that is a LONG 90-minute trip each direction. (I live in KY and work in OH, so I have to change buses in downtown Cincinnati each way - the states run different bus systems.)

So, can any of you hybrid owners carpool or ride the bus? Or move closer to work? Just wondering about the though processes of others like myself. I mean, I could sell the Element today and save some fuel and do less damage to the environment by purchasing a hybrid. However, I COULD just move a lot closer to work, or take the bus exclusively, and do even more.

So, where's that line drawn?

Thanks in advance for the responses!

Hi Dave.

You are already more socially responsible than 99% of the populace if you car pool (I was not sure if you do this already, since you put it as an 'option'.)

We car pool within the family. In the morning all 4 of us leave together. Kids get dropped off at school, then my wife either gets dropped off at school, or joins me at the gym. We have two cars, but the second car is used perhaps once or twice weekly. Most of my errands are scheduled around trips I am making already.

We enjoy our time together, although it does increase our eating out :-)

This arrangement has only been possible since I cut back work to twice weekly; but with my flexibility, a bit of planning goes a long way towards reducing single driver trips.

I could ride the bus but I hate relying on someone else. If I get a migraine at work, the last thing I want to do is wait on a bus and then make fifty stops before getting home. That rules out carpooling also.

Greg

'04Civic Hybrid

Good mass transit trumps a hybrid anyday. Note that I said "good". Like in NYC and a few other select areas. There have to be trains running every 10 minutes that can take you where you need to go quickly and without too many transfers.

No guilt.
I've driven about 620 miles and the tank average is at 63 point something. Not bad for a car rated about 49.
I get off work at 1-2 AM. Public transportation? No way. Don't need hastles with the local riff-raff.

I've came down with a nasty case of Chicken Pox so please understand if my posts are a little fewer than before.

Efficient drivers do it better.
1003 miles a tank personal record. 74MPG calculated. HCH1 CVT

No guilt. If anything, I'm a little proud of myself (and it takes a lot for me to say that, I tend to be so self-deprecating). I live in what would be called by statisticians, an 'exurb' (far out suburb, semi-rural area), and while I see other hybrids (mostly Prius) in the last few months, I see a lot of SUVs and 4WD pickups (there's a lot of tradespeople in my area as well, so I don't fault the pickups too much), and in the summertime, they're towing boats (lots of lakes in my area). Thus, I think I do a little better than 'average'; another thing that makes me feel 'good' about driving vs. not.

While I live in a 'train town' (there's a regional rail stop in my little town), the fare would be equivalent to driving (or more so, now that I use 60% of the gas that I used to), and I'd have to catch a bus that only runs to my office building once per hour. So, since I need a car for everything else, I justify in my mind the commute to work with it.

I did use to carpool with a guy who lived in my development, and worked in the same building I did - but he left the company about a year ago. Saved a heck of a lot of wear / tear on the car during the year and a half that we carpooled (not to mention the gas / pollution). It was fun. We got to discuss everything under the sun during the ride back and forth every day (although the ride back tended to be a b*tch fest about the company's policies, etc).

Finally, I had wanted a hybrid, and the opportunity came along for me to get the one I really was interested in. So I bit.

I'll admit, it was a bit of an emotional & non-essential purchase, but I enjoy the car, and I drive it not with guilt, but with pride; especially when people take interest in it and ask me about it.

Mark

Sometimes we could all use a little less

My hybrid automobiles:

Current:
2006 Honda Civic Hybrid (CVT, w/o Nav)
Magnetic Pearl / Blue - 008661, born 12/28/05
Mods: Neck pillows, Garmin C330 Nav, Draw-tite 1.25" hitch (for bikes, not towing!), Pioneer Inno XM receiver via Aux jack, OEM mud flaps, more to come!

Hypermiler status on 3/12/06 @ 3077mi.

Previous:
2005 Honda Accord Hybrid (5AT/Navi)
Desert Mist / Ivory - 001254
Retired 1/21/06 - LMPG 34.1

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I don't feel guilty. I figure its icing on the cake if I'm driving an reasonably environmentaly friendly car. I didn't buy it to save trees. Read some of my other posts to find my selfish reasons.

Getting people into hybrids that do it for reasons other than envronmental reasons at least prevents some damage to the envornment . If that makes some sense.

My hydroponics experiment

You ever notice how hard it is to lip read cartoon characters?
"Crazy is what the sane call Delta Flyer"

Right, the thing about New York and other major cities is also that driving is not a very good option, either.

Now, where I am, Southern Orange County California, there really are no viable transportation options other than driving. With Urban Sprawl, everything is far too decentralized for bus transit to work, even things like grocery stores are a couple miles away (and from our house, downhill about 700ft as well) so a car is necessary to carry purchased goods around.

Given that though, the HCH is working out well for me. I get around 54mpg despite living on top of a big hill and taking lots of short trips (straight up and down is just under 40mpg). With regular gas at $2.70 almost, the good FE saves a lot of money, considering everyone's in the same boat for long car trips/commutes around here.

Yeah I am in San Diego (and LA on many weekends) and it is the same. Socal really blows for mass transit. But at least we are saving $$$$ on our gas bills right now.

BTW what is your driving technique? I do try but rarely see more than 47mpg. I have a CVT.

driving is part of life in the USA do what you can to help but don't feel quilty or ride a motorcycle when you go by yourself

Money is not evil. Good people do good things with money and bad people do bad things with money. Which will you be???

The ultimate Altima = 2.5L V6 twin turbo diesel(150hp/250tq) with 60 hp HEV and LARGE battery.


Great style & looks with power and great MPG