First post to the board, my '06 HCH is due to be here next week!


I have been doing a lot of reading here. I have been especially intrigued by the "Maxing MPG" type of threads. I have adopted many of those suggestions to my driving now for practice.
But as a side note it occurred to me that Hybrid owners in general are probably safer drivers because of our efforts get the best MPG we can. I won't be gunning it anymore

 

I hope the insurance companies are reading this.

 

We may not be so safe because we are always staring at our mpg display!

 

Personally speaking I am a reformed character! In my Accord V6 Coupe I had to be King of the road. My wife hated it . I was macho man. Now, overnight as it were, I am converted. Alleluya! After 7 weeks of ownership I drive gently and quietly, happy to see those idiots (like I was) rushing to an early and impoverished grave!

Insurance has been discussed in another post - suffice it to say I do not think sufficient understanding exists amongst brokers of the people or the wonderful the cars which we drive..........................

 

Actually, I'm feeling a little less safe than prior to my HCHII. When I was driving my SUV, I was equal to the speed of the traffic... and riding equal to it in height (in SUV-friendly CA!!!). Now I'm slower and lower. Slower is safer, but now there's a greater speed difference between me and the other vehicles. Some are zipping past me and cutting me off because they're pissed that I'm driving 61 in the right lane! How dare I not drive 79 like everyone else! Thankfully there are trucks which are close to my "new" speeds, but I don't like to hang with them for fear of rock chips.

At least I feel a littler safer due to the side airbags!

 

 

In general I agree that we hybrid folk are safer drivers. However, there are a few things about trying to maximize your MPG which result in me being less safe than I used to be, including:

- trying to make a yellow light so I don't lose momentum
- slowing instead of stopping at a stop sign so I don't lose momentum
- taking corners faster so I don't lose momentum
- sometimes almost ignoring stop signs in sparse parking lots so I don't lose momentum
- taking speed bumps faster than is intelligent so that ... you get the idea

These are things that I used to do, but now try to avoid. So I guess I've been reformed twice: once from too-fast driving (pre-hybrid), and once from too-worried-about-MPG driving.

 

I'm a lot safer on the road in my HCH. More than just being cautious, I'm actually more relaxed, in less of a hurry, and generally less frustrated on the road. It's great. It put a spotlight on a lot of my old habbits that in the end, only caused me anger and frustration. Once I decided just to not be frustrated and react over certain things, it's just me and the car on a nice drive. I arrive at work and home in much better shape. All I had to do was concede maybe 5 minutes of commute time. Seems sort of silly that I was so rushed before.

 

So the other day I was trying to hold out to 500 miles on 1 tank of gas before filling it up while also trying to keep my mpg for that tank over 46. I was at 499.5 miles just a block from the gas station and so enthralled by the display that I ran a red light. I have since changed my display to the outside temperature, much less distracting and my mileage hasn't suffered from lack of attention.

 

Many people have made comments like this and they don't match my experience. Well, I don't know, maybe Southern California and Northern California are different (they're different in many other ways).

Driving Bay Area freeways, if I'm doing 70 MPH in uncongested traffic I find myself in the fast lane because most people are going a bit slower. Driving in the fast lane is relatively stressful because some hot dog will come up behind you wanting to pass, and I'm not inclined to accelerate for the benefit of someone going way over the limit behind me. With the HCH I've decided to try 68 MPH and it's much more relaxed driving. I can stay in a middle lane and go with the flow of traffic at that speed. 20% or so of the traffic is passing me in the fast lane. Cars going more than 75 are few and far between. Going 68 in a middle lane I've never had someone honk, flash their lights, try to climb my rear fender, or cut me off in anger for going too slow.