Hyper-milers are killers

We’re hearing a lot about hypermiling lately. Hypermiling describes a driver’s efforts to squeeze every last mile out of a gallon of gas.

Examples would include: starting and immediately driving without waiting for the motor to warm up, coasting in neutral or with the engine off going down a hill, not using the brakes rounding a corner to avoid converting kinetic energy into heat and thus having to accelerate again, turning off the engine when stopped at traffic lights, jam or a railroad crossing.

On the surface these seems logic, indeed commendable. It’s nothing new; it’s been used since the first gas crisis in the 1970s. Beneath the veneers of plausibility lies the truth.

You’d want to be a complete idiot to practice most of these techniques and here’s why.

First, it’s a false economy. You’re trading gas mileage and the associated expense for deferred - and more expensive - costs in the form of car repairs. A new starter, additional engine wear when we drive without warming the oil and metal on metal wear ensues. Second is the danger. Turning off the engine while the car is moving is dangerous not only to you and your passengers but to us folks in the real world.

Most cars these days lose their brakes and power-steering as soon as the motor is turned off. Coasting, while it’s quiet and warms the heart as we feel the dimes tinkle into our pocket in savings, adds not only the danger associated with an engine stall, but also forgoes the benefit of having the engine engage with its additional braking effect in the event of an emergency stop.

I watch a segment on CNN Headline News recently where they sent a camera crew with a near demented hypermiler. He spend the entire trip planning three moves ahead on his journey. This of course meant that was not concentrating on the present - he was obviously distracted. He rounded a corner in neutral at speed knocking the camera to the floor. He was delighted in getting negative reaction from other drivers he was upsetting by driving at what he termed his most economical speed. His slow speed was an obvious danger to others. And for what? He managed to get 50 mpg as opposed to 25. On a 50 mile trip he saved $2 but endangered himself and others around him, to say nothing of the additional wear and tear in his car.

Life is hard enough with distracted drivers as it is. Many of us are busy driving with a cell phone stuck to ours ear, a cigarette in one hand, coffee in the other. Add to the mix some female drivers daubing on make-up, some of us writing notes, texting, checking email, drinking beer and eating or, in the case of one person I saw on the highway recent – reading a magazine (propped on the steering wheel) while driving. No kidding.

Adding hypemiling drivers to the mix and the streets and highways will resemble the supercollider at full throttle.