While I agree with your endeavours to improve gas mileage, you need to apply your techniques in a practical manner and should drive to maintain progress with normal traffic flow.

Gradual acceleration does little for you, while you should not floor the gas from a stop, you should use adequate throttle to get into the appropriate gear for your speed and road conditions, this is the most economical mode of progress.

Coasting to a red light and downhill is correct, though you should be coasting with adequate throttle to maintain positive progress and not be doing this in neutral or at 10mph for a red light a mile away. Remember, your driving behaviour affects other road users and also their fuel consumption, overly slow progress will force other drivers to accelerate round you.

You need to be sensitive to other road users and employ your gas economy techniques effectively, that will greatly reduce the road rage factor. Though there will always be a percentage of drivers who are only capable of driving in binary (ON or OFF), you just have to live with these.

Normal traffic flow violates most traffic laws. Coasting to a stop if you take the car out of gear is illegal. People learn by example.

I disagree that normal traffic flow violates MOST traffic laws, though general traffic speed may violate the speed limit you should remember that yours and others safety is the first priority. If the surrounding traffic is travelling at 55mph in a 40mph speed limit then I would prefer to move with traffic as opposed to presenting a traffic hazard for the sake of being right. If I didn't wish to travel with the traffic at that speed, I'd rather find an alternative route.

Coasting in neutral is illegal in some states but not all, if you have a late 50's - early 60's car fitted with a Laycock free wheel overdrive you'd break the law as soon as you took your foot of the gas. However it is dangerous for many reasons.

I doubt that many people learn by example when driving unless it is under instruction, very few people take the advantage of advanced driving courses even where they are available. The US driving course and test is derisory (though not as bad as some countries I could mention) and ill equips drivers for the realities of real world driving. A pity the IAM doesn't exist over here, I did think of founding one but I'm too busy at the moment.

Yes, I agree. Many people do not take the advanced drivers courses. Therefore the practices they implement are learned on the road. The school of experience. WE BOTH do dupport you Dr. Car!

Here we have a city school system and a county school system. You can always tell which school a driver went to. A person who learned to drive at the city school will always pull into the oncoming lane on a 2-lane road to slow down for a left turn. A person who learned in the county school will always, when turning onto a 4-lane devided highway, will go directly into the FAR lane of the highway, often then swerving into the near lane with nary a signal, in spite clear instructions in the drivers manual to turn into the near lane, then signal if you need the far lane.

Scudder: Very well written. Your reply was on the money.

Road-ragers will always find something to tick them off. As gas prices rise, it's only going to get worse. As Scudder has suggested, you need to use good judgment when driving in traffic.

But you'll still tick off some drivers, no matter what you do.

Scudder and NYBo have expressed it very well. It is fine to want to drive more economically, but since you are sharing the road with others who may not always be level-headed (or economy-minded), you will probably need to modify your driving to some extent. This does not mean that they are right and you are wrong, but sometimes you have to be practical and adjust for the circumstances that you are in.

Don't drive under the speed limit, as that is sure to ignite road rage. Accelerate slowly, but try to get into your overdrive gear as soon as possible. That will yield better gas mileage than very slow acceleration that causes you to linger in lower gears for a longer time. Coast up to a traffic light, rather than speeding up to it as so many people do--but try to estimate when the light is likely to change so that you are not dropping your speed too low at a very far distance from the traffic light. NEVER coast in neutral.

I am all for driving in the most economical way possible, but if you wind up being rear-ended by someone, you will wipe out all of your savings on gas very quickly.

Interesting perception of the speed limit. It is a maximum and not a minimum as traffic flow treats is. Do a search on the Dutch Bikini Bandits to see what Europe is doing to crack down on people driving as if the limit were a minimum.

Those other folks are all correct. Nobody likes to share the road with an inconsiderate jerk. This includes the slowpoke in the left lane (who righteously points out he's doing the legal speed limit) or all others of his ilk who impede smooth traffic flow.

You cannot hide behind the self-serving attitude of 'those fools who are in a hurry.' Everyone sets his own pace, quite reasonable to himself, and merely wants a fair chance to use it.

You ask, "how do we diffuse this aggression?" Step One begins with your acceptance of the fact that you are the cause of it. Your selfishness and inconsideration must be reviewed. Of course, you already realize this and are most likely enjoying being the cause of other drivers' discomfit.

wow. judging by your language, you are probably one of those who think everyone driving slower than you should immediately pull over to let you pass.

Road rage is not and never is the fault of anyone except the person who has the rage.

"Road rage is not and never is the fault of anyone except the person who has the rage."

Exactly! Too many people out there think they are justified in becoming enraged because some "left lane hog" refuses to move out of their way, or in some other way doesn't drive "correctly." If you have so little control of your own emotions and behavior that you become enraged by the "selfishness and inconsideration" of another driver, than YOU have a far bigger problem than that driver does.

I do the speed limit in the right(slow) lane and still have tailgaters and fly-bys. I think stupidity and oblivion are more prevalent that we would like to acknowledge. There are good drivers out there and some really bad ones. Nothing to do about hte bad ones except hope they don't hit you. If they go by, I'm happy they aren't behind me any more.

Wasting gas affects all of us. If everybody drove for maximum mpg demand might go down some and that would theoretically make gas prices slow their rise.

While there is nothing wrong with coasting up to a read light (within reason) and coasting downhill (again, within reason). I absolutely loathe the sloths who don't have the common decency to accelerate away from a stop at a reasonable pace. To many people getting to your destination in a timely manner outweighs the extra gallon of gas you use being more aggressive with the accelerator pedal. To rectify the situation, I suggest you try to keep up with the prevailing flow of traffic and save the mileage maximizing tricks for when you are the only car on the road.

Don't impeded traffic flow. Your life is not worth the tad bit of savings. It is all a balance. If there is a passing lane by all means go for it.

I tried those methods in my Subaru WRX which I get 23 mpg overall typically accelerating relatively quickly onto highways(using 4000 rpm as shift point). I only gained about 1-2mpg in the car basically keeping out of boost(turbo). I felt hardly worth it since I bought the car to enjoy beyond transport.

you need to apply your techniques in a practical manner and should drive to maintain progress with normal traffic flow. !!

Road-ragers will always find something to tick them off. But it is not wise to give them cause.

Don't drive under the speed limit, as that is sure to ignite road rage. Go ahead and drive under the speed limit (within reason) but don't do it in a manor that will trigger road rage, like on a two lane road, or in the left land of a highway.

Don't impeded traffic flow. !!

All things in moderation !!

"Go ahead and drive under the speed limit (within reason) but don't do it in a manor that will trigger road rage, like on a two lane road, or in the left land of a highway."


Drive any way that you wish when you are at your own manor!

But, when you are on public highways, try to drive in a manner that won't incite road rage.

;-))

I got to get an "in context" spell checker. :-)

Joseph--I hope you realize that I'm just joking around with you. You consistently give good advice, spell-checker or not.

Again, you cannot blame your road rage on anyone except yourself!