GreenHybrid needs a new unit of measure: Miles per Gallon per Occupant (MPGPO) Let me explain:

Many posts refer to reducing weight (ripping off mirrors, tossing out the spare, making passengers run along side of the car outside of the slipstream, etc) which makes me realize that I'm obviously doing a huge diservice to the environment by driving with four people in my TCH and lowering my milage. So, to combat this SOV vs. HSD thing, I think there should be a MPGPO unit. So if my TCH gets 42 mpg with me alone, I'd be getting 42mpgpo. But if my TCH gets a humbling 35 mpg with four passengers, that's 35x4= 140mpgpo. Cool, huh?

My point is, a hybrid is great, but it's even better when you're taking another car off the road. Makes a good thing even better.

Thanks.

It is commonly called "seat miles per gallon" SMPG....Louis

See? It seemed too good of an idea to be original. I think MPGPO sounds better than SMPG. My next plan is to cram 12 or 13 folks into my car to really maximize my SMPG. Or MPGPO.

Thanks for the info.

gang , good post.



i will do one better with this latest 'hypermiling' suggestion.

what about the height and weight of each occupant?

I have decided if you can cram 13 people into your prius, how many eunuchs can you fit in there. I suspect i could round up 47 eunuchs.

now multiply your mpg x 47 people.

quickly run to your computer and update your 'numbers' so all can see and you can gloat.

Actually, I remember that the miles per gallon per occupant calculations were used as an argument AGAINST letting hybrids into the carpool lanes. It went something like this:

"If there are two people in my Accord/Camry/>fill in car here< that gets 27 mpg, then I'm getting 54 mpgpo, and that's better than the hybrids get. I'm doing a better for the environment by taking another car off the road, so why should hybrids get special treatment?"

Of course, this doesn't really work for Hummers (8 mpg x 2 is 16 mpg) and other large gas-guzzlers, unless you pack them full of people. And then there are the people who PAY for the FasTrak service, and drive the lane with one person in the car anyway....

Actually some evenings while driving the HOV lanes by myself I contemplate that maybe they should change it to actually be High MPG vehicle lanes, rather than High OCCUPANCY vehicle-- and that would be calculated using mpgpo. So for example, instead of saying "you can only use these lanes if you have 2 (sometimes 3) people in the car," we'd set it so that only vehicles getting 40 mpgpo+ can drive in those lanes. That would allow hybrids, sedans/small cars carrying 2+ people, or larger vehicles carrying 4+ people.

What do you think? Too complicated for the average driver to figure out?
--A

we dont have HOV lanes here in melbourne florida where i live. I cant comment on it. I bought my hybrid to help the enviroment. I already knew the trumped up price was gonna negate any gas savings for about 100,000 miles or so. The tax break is great though.....

I would like to hear more about enviromental issues, plug -in and other coming advances that can help the nation as a whole. For my money, a break thru in long long lasting batteries for pure EV or plug in tech for hybrids is going to change the industry -not the increasingly dubious ways to milk MPG numbers on this generation of hybrids.

I remember this in the 1980's. They called it PMPG: Passenger Miles Per Gallon.

A bus for example got about 10 MPG, but it held 60 people at that 10 MPG. The PMPG was 600. A Honda Civic Hybrid, for example, gets 49 MPG with 5 people, or 245 PMPG.

The flaw in this measurement is that the bus may often be empty or at lowest capacity and the same goes for the Civic Hybrid.

Apparently, a Boeing 747 gets the best PMPG/SMPG/MPGPO. Makes sense.

Thanks.