Stoaty's Guide to Energy Efficient Driving of the Leaf

We have those here too. Another pretty peeve of mine is local jurisdictions allowing single drivers to pay for HOV access. Here there is also select areas where you enter and exit. But they really don't apply to normal HOV alloted cars, just the single drivers so you can go around slower cars at any time. (If you can stand the noise! )

Nubo said:

DaveinOlyWA said:

here we get people driving 60 mph (the speed limit) in the HOV lanes all the time. we simply pass them and move on. there are a few places where the HOV lane veers off on its own so passing is not an option but those places are rare and for fairly short distances

Click to expand...

In southern CA, once you're in the HOV lane, you are "locked in". I think there are something like 32 or 36 yellow stripes to remind you. You can only leave the lane at a select few spots that are about 3 1/2 feet long. Don't blink.

Ok, so I exaggerate. But, entry/exit from the HOV there is very restricted. And the taboo is deeply ingrained in the local population. I remember the first time I moved out of an HOV with "locals" in the car. There was a collective gasp and they all exclaimed at once "WHAT ARE YOU DOING!!!?", as if I'd almost caused some horrible accident. I take it the fines are mind-boggling. Somehow here in the SF area, we manage ok without surrounding our HOV lanes with barbed wire and machine-gun nests. :lol:

Click to expand...

you are a more civilized society, according to my experience.

ok, just got home from work (just meetings and trainings so VERY short day!)

and simply cannot resist relating this story.

the situation; driving on cruise control set at 55 mph, no heat and tracking my power used per mile. the drive from exit 127ish southbound on I-5 to exit 119 picked because no major elevation changes, just some gentle ups and downs for the most part. there is a small loss of roughly 80 feet in altitude on this stretch.

1) 193 wh
2) 216 wh
3) 241 wh
4) 242 wh
5) 215 wh
6) 163 wh
7) 270 wh
8) 154 wh

to clarify; 7 and 8 cover the rather long ramp to JBLM so its an artificial elevation change at best. but mile 6; although doing only 55 mph, I came up behind a truck only doing 48-50 mph. I had to follow him for like 30-40 seconds (to AVENG; but it "seemed like" 5 minutes!!) before being able to pass without impeding people in the lane next to me...

(sorry but could not resist! )

thankyouOB said:

Nubo said:

Somehow here in the SF area, we manage ok without surrounding our HOV lanes with barbed wire and machine-gun nests. :lol:

Click to expand...

you are a more civilized society, according to my experience.

Click to expand...

Having recently moved from the northeast, I think Southern California drivers (LA and Orange County region) are the rudest drivers I've ever experienced. I have been deliberately run-off the road (by a guy moving into my lane), honked at because I slowed to 35 to take a sharp curving ramp, given the finger by some woman (no idea why), had multiple drivers honk at because I was doing 65 (speed limit), and even had one idiot stop his car in front of me on the interstate because he wanted to have a "chat" with me. He thought because I just came off the ramp, I should immediately accelerate from 25 to 70, and that I am a "slow ass". LOL.

Everything I described happened during just the first 3 months. I could go on & on & on. Remember the Highway Gun Shooting from the 90s? I can't wait to move back to the northeast where drivers are, not perfect, but at least calmer.

BTW the HOV lanes in the DC/Baltimore area are basically just extra lanes. They are rarely separated from the main flow of traffic, and during nonrush hours can be used by any driver, even solo drivers. I use them often. :-D We also have a brand-new pay lane which is almost like it's own separate road. You join the lane, pay the toll, and then it goes off separate from the interstate.

theaveng said:

Having recently moved from the northeast, I think Southern California drivers (LA and Orange County region) are the rudest drivers I've ever experienced. I have been deliberately run-off the road (by a guy moving into my lane), honked at because I slowed to 35 to take a sharp curving ramp, given the finger by some woman (no idea why), had multiple drivers honk at because I was doing 65 (speed limit), and even had one idiot stop his car in front of me on the interstate because he wanted to have a "chat" with me. He thought because I just came off the ramp, I should immediately accelerate from 25 to 70, and that I am a "slow ass". LOL.

Everything I described happened during just the first 3 months. I could go on & on & on. Remember the Highway Gun Shooting from the 90s? I can't wait to move back to the northeast where drivers are, not perfect, but at least calmer.

Click to expand...

It appears you are provoking the same response in other drivers as you are getting on this forum. I wonder what could be causing that?

I almost never agree with anything that "theaveng" writes but I do have to give him this one... However, it does appear that he is under the same misconception of many, that the driver entering a freeway has the right of way. Nope, the entering driver has to yield to the on-coming traffic which has the right of way...

theaveng said:

Having recently moved from the northeast, I think Southern California drivers (LA and Orange County region) are the rudest drivers I've ever experienced. I have been deliberately run-off the road (by a guy moving into my lane), honked at because I slowed to 35 to take a sharp curving ramp, given the finger by some woman (no idea why), had multiple drivers honk at because I was doing 65 (speed limit), and even had one idiot stop his car in front of me on the interstate because he wanted to have a "chat" with me. He thought because I just came off the ramp, I should immediately accelerate from 25 to 70, and that I am a "slow ass".

Click to expand...

i thought everyone had blocked theaveng as a troll.
he even has a troll address.

(stoaty post took the words from my mouth.)

I only saw it because it was quoted in Stoaty's post...

thankyouOB said:

i thought everyone had blocked theaveng as a troll.
he even has a troll address.

Click to expand...

My bad. I will stop responding to him. Apologies to the rest of the forum.

TomT said:

I only saw it because it was quoted in Stoaty's post...

thankyouOB said:

i thought everyone had blocked theaveng as a troll.
he even has a troll address.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

+1

thankyouOB said:

theaveng
Joined: Sat Sep 08, 2012 6:30 pm
Posts: 302
Location: Shangri-la, CA
Delivery Date: 31 Dec 2014

a serious commenter?
or
a troll with a sign that says "troll."

Click to expand...

it is funny to me that everyone claims they drive the way they do because they are forced to by others essentially admitting they have relinquished their right to choose to drive in their own way.

I dont know of any other subject where people would not vehemently deny to the point of violence their decision was their own and not swayed in anyway by others.

but we (actually I "drive to the beat of my own drummer" and that will never change) continue to risk (albeit a small risk) tickets, accidents (lets face it, most accidents are fender benders and if we were driving 10 mph slower would the accident still have happened?)

I have found that no matter how slow I drive, there is always someone at my speed or less. This is something I would not have believed before. i now realize that I pass so few cars now that the action has become some sort of an event. As I slowly overtake the car I study it wondering why it has chosen to drive significantly slower than everyone else and frequently there is no outward reason (extreme age, vision or equipment drawbacks...) for it so I have to assume they have decided to burn fuel at a lesser rate.

Now, I have made it a habit to drive no more than 62 mph since getting my first Prius in 2004 but only because I knew speedometers read higher than actual and I did see a lot more animosity then than I do now but back then, gas was just over a buck a gallon and this was before the latest rounds of gas price hikes... plus the Prius was still the "Poindexter of the road" and subject to significant ridicule for a dozen different reasons that no longer seem to be valid. The Prius used to be ugly (an opinion I never had...)I thought the Prius was "space-aged" or "spacey" one or the other but definitely not ugly

so why do I not get the same flack as before especially now that I am driving 55 mph OR LESS? maybe its the attitude of Washingtonians that has made the LEAF one of the best selling vehicles of any kind in the region or maybe its simply drivers who have weathered the gas price shocks and who gained a small sliver of insight to some of the reasons why I drive slower.

Or maybe nothing has changed and I have just learned to tune it out more effectively

for those of you that have blocks up, you probably wondering why I posted this and considering the # of you left, I have to guess there will only be a few left to read this. maybe I should have put it on the blog instead?

Deleted.

Gearscout said:

Everyone left because this entire thread is overwrought.

Click to expand...

The only information contained in your post is that you belong on the "Foes" list (i.e., won't see your posts anymore).