Best thing I ever did* was go on a fuel efficient driving course. It's not really about fuel efficiency, it's just not driving like a dick. e.g.
There's a traffic light junction near home, turn out of it onto a road for about 0.5 mile until a roundabout. Invariably, I drive at the limit of 40mph with the person behind right up my bumper. In the past, I've always gone straight on at the roundabout but recently moved house down the road to the right, so approaching the rndbt I keep in the right lane of three. Invariably again, the person up my bumper, as I drift right, speed up to come past me and maybe get a nose in front before having to slow down for the roundabout. WHY? What's to gain?
Back to the course, and the instructor essentially said "don't race to the next lights / junction, keep a gap between you and the car in front so if they slow down you can just ease off rather than brake. If you have to brake, you've wasted energy".
It might sound boring, but I'm OK with that because really it's just not driving like a dick.
*well, not quite.
Absolutely.. Reading the road ahead and driving progressive makes a huge difference.
Easing off the go pedal before you need to brake, don't accelerate hard, efficient gear changes... It all adds up to smoother drive and less fuel consumption.
It's also a much safer way to drive as your less likely to be caught out by a random hazard.
Christ, I’m glad I drive an ancient car with no MPG gauge. Life’s too short surely?
You seem to think people are actually worrying about these things, in a negative way. Don't assume that. Me, I think of stuff like this because I'm interested, curious and I like understanding things.
For me, life's certainly too short to be criticising others on the internet for indulging their curiosity.
Most women are horrendous drivers
As a cyclist, I'd rather all drivers were women than men. If I am riding along and a car behind me sits back and waits for a nice safe place to pass with good distance, it's nearly always a woman, sometimes an older man. If on the other hand a car bombs past too fast, too close or pulls some other dick move, that's nearly always a man.
And driving like a looney up people's backsides and doing dodgy maneuvers is just creating extra danger.. If you're running late you may as well be ten minutes late as opposed to 5 minutes late and drive more safely. Makes no odds.
The younger boy racer version of me would disagree though. 😀
As a cyclist, I’d rather all drivers were women than men.
^^^^ this
*EDIT - also, as a driver, come to think of it
The worst drivers I see are school run DAD followed buy school run mum but dad is ruddy dangerous
Once saw an old neighbour of mine (school run dad) mount a kerb just to get around a bin lorry to get the kids to school, thing is, we lived on a square, so could have just gone the other way.
As for the OP? Yeah probably. I don't 'drive it like you stole it' but I also never check what MPG I'm getting.
The few times I got hit or a near miss on my bike were all women. Two looking down at their phones and another shot straight over a roundabout I was on. So I'd say the opposite. Does that make me a sexist? 🙂
Are you sure you’re doing it right?
Yes... 😁
Given the grief I had last time we're all more than cool with this set up.
Are some people naturally uneconomical drivers? I don’t notice any poor mechanical sympathy when I’m passengering, but we do seem to have large fuel performance differences.
Yes some drivers are terrible at driving economically. My sister was regularly complaining about the poor MPG out of her car (Zafira 1.6 petrol) when she first got it and though it was faulty. I was travelling with her on a trip to a friend's house a good 2-3 hours away so agreed to share the driving and took the opportunity to compare our MPG figures on the dash to each other. She was getting 24-6 mpg regardless of whether it was motorway or A roads whereas I could easily get into the mid 30's and higher with a bit of effort. She does have a rather forceful driving style that won't help but I must have a natural knack for it as I've always been able to beat the book figures for my cars without doing any stupid hypermiling stuff. current car should get 49 mpg on the combined cycle but I get that with the bike rack on the back, 53-5 mpg is my usual figure (measured full tank to full tank, OBC says 3 mpg lower usually).
Men tend to drive more agressivley but women seem to be be more clueless so it's swings and roundabouts really. 😀
My mates Mrs. for example will drive at the speed limit right upto what will be a red traffic light that she could predict if she was reading the road ahead. and then anchor the brakes on at the last seconds.
He on the other hand doesn't do that but tends to drive too fast around corners with limited visibility.
Men tend to drive more agressivley but women seem to be be more clueless so it’s swings and roundabouts really.
This I wholeheartedly agree with. Been noticing more than a few examples of completely clueless road positioning (blocking a junction by turning right from the middle rather than the right); swerving into junctions; parking on the zigzags outside school; not noticing lights have changed whilst looking at their navel; etc. All seem to be women. Meanwhile all the blokes are just driving like ****s everywhere aggressively.
Anyway, back to the OP. I once did a Guildford - home journey on a Friday evening and averaged 70mpg by the time I got to M6/M56 junction due to the traffic being slow but steady. I promptly proceeded to see how low I could make it before I got home, the answer was 62 ish. That's 200 miles at 70mpg and 30 miles at considerably less (about 35mpg I think). So it's definitely possible to do, but you have to drive like a dick.
women seem to be be more clueless
Not in my experience.
So I’d say the opposite. Does that make me a sexist?
Yes mate it does.
Some stats:
In England, men travel an average of 7,200 miles per year compared to 5,800 miles that are covered by women.
So men drive 24% more than women but...
In Great Britain, men account for 74% of road traffic deaths, 69% of serious injuries and 57% of slight injuries on the roads. (Brake, 2020) (Source: https://toptests.co.uk/driving-statistics/)
... cause three times the deaths.
So leave out the 'women are crap' stuff please. I stand by my earlier comments. Not noticing the lights have changed is slightly annoying but resolved by a friendly beep of the horn. Being killed though is a bit more difficult to deal with.
