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Car Forum / Toyota / Prius / July 2006Small Town Efficiency
I live in a small town - 1 mile wide 5 miles long. It has 4 traffic lights and lots of stop signs. We make somewhat less than 1 trip each day through 4 stop signs and 3 traffic lights to town. We also make 2 trips a week on the interstate 25 to 40 miles to a nearby city where we drive around for an hour doing various errands and then drive back. We also make 2 to 4 500 mile round trip vacation trips each year. Will we and the environment get any benefit from a hybrid? Does anyone have any thoughts or better yet experience with this kind of driving? John Ahlstrom  SignatureSmart is thinking you are right. Wise is knowing you might be wrong. >I live in a small town - 1 mile wide 5 miles long. > It has 4 traffic lights and lots of stop signs. [quoted text clipped - 14 lines] > > John Ahlstrom Hi John, You probably aren't going to get 50 mpg will all these short trips however you will burn less gas than almost any other car since the short trips eat their gas as well. I take a 3-mile trip to town every other day and get a mere 35 - 38 mpg on those trips. On those 500 mile trips, however, if you drive 55 expect better than 50 mpg. My other car is a Ford Explorer. The Prius is much more fun to drive and will use $14,000 less gas in 100K miles at $1.68/gallon, not to mention how much less it will pollute our air. > I take a 3-mile trip to town every other day and get a mere 35 - 38 mpg on > those trips. That's because of the added weight. Gotta lay off those donuts, Bill ;) >> I take a 3-mile trip to town every other day and get a mere 35 - 38 mpg >> on those trips. > > That's because of the added weight. Gotta lay off those donuts, Bill ;) Right, that and the beer. :-) >>> I take a 3-mile trip to town every other day and get a mere 35 - 38 mpg >>> on those trips. >> >> That's because of the added weight. Gotta lay off those donuts, Bill ;) > Right, that and the beer. :-) OK, that's all I needed to here. Pull over. License and registration please. mark_ > I live in a small town - 1 mile wide 5 miles long. > It has 4 traffic lights and lots of stop signs. > We make somewhat less than 1 trip each day > through 4 stop signs and 3 traffic lights to town. With a town that small surely it would be more environmentally friendly to just walk or ride a bike. Or would that be an 'Un-American' thing to do? > We also make 2 trips a week on the interstate > 25 to 40 miles to a nearby city where we drive [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > We also make 2 to 4 500 mile round trip vacation > trips each year. With that sort of trip at high speeds for long durations of time a high efficiency diesel vehicle would be more fuel efficient than a hybrid. > Will we and the environment get any benefit > from a hybrid? Does anyone have any thoughts > or better yet experience with this kind of driving? > > John Ahlstrom The rest of the world seems to get the impression that Americans are hideously crippled chubby people that are so incapacitated they need an SUV to transport themselves down the road. If you do in fact have legs it would be far more beneficial to the environment and your health to just walk or ride a bike. >> I live in a small town - 1 mile wide 5 miles long. >> It has 4 traffic lights and lots of stop signs. [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > With a town that small surely it would be more environmentally friendly to > just walk or ride a bike. Or would that be an 'Un-American' thing to do? That works for me in nice weather, but I was somewhat more inured to bicycling in the rain when I was younger. Of course, I left quite a bit of skin on the road in those days, too :-( I haven't even tried bicycling in the snow. OTOH, I've never had a job where I had to be dressed nicely - that makes cycling impractical and makes walking less attractive in any but the best weather. Carrying a large tool box would also make things tricky without a car. My point is: probably better not to assume others have it as easy as we do. Mike > The rest of the world seems to get the impression that Americans are > hideously crippled chubby people that are so incapacitated they need an > SUV to transport themselves down the road. > If you do in fact have legs it would be far more beneficial to the > environment and your health to just walk or ride a bike. I lived in Europe for a few years and took advantage of the fabulous public transportation. The population density, more than anything else, makes public transportation work very well. Take a good look at North Dakota, Iowa, South Dakota, Montana... oh hell I could list 3/4ths of our states, and you will discover that public transportation is only practical in the largest of their cities and in those, it has to be subsidized. If most Americans lived shoulder-to-shoulder then America could be accurately compared to "the rest of the world". > With that sort of trip at high speeds for long durations of time a high > efficiency diesel vehicle would be more fuel efficient than a hybrid. But only if you have a manual transmission and know how to drive for efficiency... But the diesel would put out far more emissions (even with the car off/not moving!), especially more so until the new low-sulfur fuel comes into the US... Of course you have to be somewhere that'll actually sell them, too (they've been too dirty to sell new in the CA-emission states for a while now)... >I live in a small town - 1 mile wide 5 miles long. > It has 4 traffic lights and lots of stop signs. [quoted text clipped - 14 lines] > > John Ahlstrom I can't answer your question but it sounds like your car will be in pristine condition when it comes time to trade it in. mark_ > I live in a small town - 1 mile wide 5 miles long. > It has 4 traffic lights and lots of stop signs. > We make somewhat less than 1 trip each day > through 4 stop signs and 3 traffic lights to town. A town this small makes it difficult to get the Prius up to operating temperature. However, I'm working on a block-heater and transaxle-heater that might work out. Let me get it tested more and we'll let you know. Really, a town this small needs an electric vehicle or more EV capability than a standard Prius. > We also make 2 trips a week on the interstate > 25 to 40 miles to a nearby city where we drive > around for an hour doing various errands and then > drive back. It works well if you can keep the speed to 65 mph. If not, is there a two-lane road you can use to keep the speed down? > We also make 2 to 4 500 mile round trip vacation > trips each year. Works great. > Will we and the environment get any benefit > from a hybrid? Does anyone have any thoughts > or better yet experience with this kind of driving? Your pocket book first from the fuel savings. You will also be reducing your carbon 'foot-print'. Then if you put in a 1 kW inverter, you'll have an excellent, emergency power generator that gets 50+ MPG. Bob Wilson |
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