When is MPG not MPG??

[Steve Peters]

Take a look at this video on MPG from Duke university!

Can somebody explain to me, in plain English, what these guys are saying?

When is a MPG not a MPG? When people talk in riddles!

MPG calculation goes like this, fellas: you fills up your car, you presses the trip counter to zero, you drives a while, you fills up again and you does your arithmetic.

Or else you talk like you guys, example:

Man gets home says to wife,
"I saved a dollar by running home behind the bus!

"You idiot! she replies. You should have saved $20 and run home behind a taxi!"

[hypermile]

the point is that sometimes hypermiling is pointless. What is the point of trying to get around using less gas when you could use alternative forms of transportation that use much less or no gas at all. Barking up the wrong tree if you know what I mean.

[lowbridescape]

It's called cognitive dissonance and relates to the fact that most people are not analytical and tend to make decisions based on emotional appeal (Since it's an election year, we're going to wallow in it until November.)

What these guys are saying is that I have an opportunity to be a gassaving SAINT , because my cars suck lemons big time in terms of mileage, while the rest of you pikers are hardly making a dent in the problem with you puny 85mpg improved to 87mpg contributions.

Another alternate measure is gallons per week. Going 15 miles out of your way to stay on highways so you can avoid the three stop lights between where you started and the store 1/4 mile away makes for great mileage but is not really conserving gas. I generally filled the Brick (I guess it has a name now) around once a week (14ish gallons). In the month since I started this stuff (and not counting two exceptional cross countries) I'm running about 10 1/2ish gallons/week. So either I'm being more efficient and sensible about driving, or I'm building up a huge backlog of errands that are going to come due soon.

[suspendedhatch]

I tried to explain this to my g/f. We moved from San Diego to Salt Lake. In San Diego she worked 30 miles away (all freeway) and got 35mpg. Here she works 3 miles away (all city) and only gets 30 mpg. Not to mention that gas here is 70 cents cheaper. Still, she's skeptical.

[RoadWarrior]

Lemme see, $60 a day in taking that epitome of green, efficient transport a shagged out crown vic interceptor with half a barn door on top proclaiming "TAXI" vs $60 a week in gas... probably get 5mpg more than the taxi does, and it has come across town to pick me up and doubles back the route, so that would be about 9 mpg over all. Bus service coverage of anywhere that isn't about a 30 min walk away anyway is kinda minimal. Could only take $2 an hour less to live within walking/biking distance, but anything that pays more than about $5-$6 an hour less is off the bus routes and too far to walk/cycle.

Complicating evolution away from this state of affairs is the NIMBY folks who buy new shoeboxes built next to an in-city brownfield industrial zoned site, then put up a huge stink if anyone actually wants to put any kind of commercial or business operation on it. So some greenfield site out in the sticks gets despoiled because nobody lives right next to it.... and everybody has to drive there.... eventually a community might spring up around it if it's a big enough employer... at first 70% of the people living there make their living directly off it... the other 30% providing services, shops etc, the community flourishes, and the proportions sink to 15 or 20% directly employed and the 75-80% who're living off the fat of this, FORGET where the money is coming from, and start complaining about trucks, smells, unsightly factory buildings... and when the company tries to expand... they aren't allowed to... so they move to another greenfield site out in the sticks somewhere.....

Don't hate the player, hate the game.