cheers

priuschat.com/forums/prius-main-forum/48467-how-many-gun-toting-mccain-voting-prius-owners-out-there.html

That was by far the longest and most well-written comment on this blog (almost like a short essay)! Thanks for sharing your thoughts

Though, I must add, politics aside, accelerating quickly gives you a low mileage. It’s really what hurts your fuel economy (FE) the most. Think about it: accelerating quickly means speeding up at a higher rpm, which uses up more fuel. Driving with FE in mind, on the other hand, means accelerating slowly, which a relatively low rpm, and speeding up as you go and maintaining a reasonable speed and rpm. There’s my 5 cents.

I live in a decently sized town, so traffic, traffic lights, heavily condensed roads, freeways, and interstates are the norm here. However, everyone drives the same except for a select few. Everyone drives, atleast in my town, as if they forgot to consider the things they’ve learned in Driver’s Ed.

Absolutely NO ONE stops at stop signs or red lights, and absolutely NO ONE goes the speed limit. How hard is it to obey these two simple rules?

The truth is, no one cares. Since they don’t care, they’re the ones who force insurance companies to increase their bills and ignorantly group young teenagers with red sports cars as an almost guaranteed hazard to the road.

Two years ago, when I was 18, I got my first car, and I still have it. I haven’t wrecked in the two years I’ve driven it. This is how I drive:

I signal before I come to an intersection. I stop at each intersection even if there’s not a stop sign in most cases. I look both ways -AFTER I STOP- like everyone else should. I then go the direction I signaled.

I then quickly accelerate to the speed limit. Now here’s the difference in quickly accelerating to 30 or 45 MPH to slowly accelerating to 30 or 45 MPH(the average speed limit in my town).

Normally, every driver slowly accelerates, but since no one pays attention to the speed limit, they always keep slowly accelerating to the point where they go 5, 10, sometimes 15 and beyond over. There is going to be very little difference between my fuel gauge consumption and the typical driver’s gas consumption since they’re burning more fuel by accelerating more and more as time progresses, while I hastily accelerate to the speed limit and keep a constant RPM for a long while.

I also quickly accelerate to form a good habit. When I’m in heavily traffic’d areas, I’m sure to quickly accelerate especially if I’m the first car in line at a traffic light, so that others behind me have the chance to accelerate just as quickly, so the odds of reducing traffic are greater. Obviously no one cares, so that never happens. However, by the time I’m going the speed limit, I’ve passed 2 green lights that have since become red, and the would-be speeders have to sit and wait before they can slowly accelerate over the speed limit again.

All in all, if you drive defensively, are aware of your surroundings, and are in full control of your vehicle, AND you’re obeying the law, then you have the right to drive. Honestly I’d prefer half the people in America’s license to be taken away.

I’m going to make a bumper sticker that says, ‘Get off my ass and go the speed limit.’

Indirectly calling Bush voters ‘followers’ was uncalled for. I may have not have voted for Bush(I was too young at the time), but I’m sensible enough to respect The President of the United States of America, no matter if he’s/she’s conservative or liberal.