Is Autostop....useless??
World's First Hybrid
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 600
From: Quincy MA
Re: Is Autostop....useless??
Originally Posted by fernando_g
Don't flame me, this is a sincere question.
At least where I drive, it is quite useless.
The reason being that at the traffic lights where it makes sense (lasting longer than say, 15 secs wait), the vehicles leave several feet between one and the other as they stop.
A few seconds later, they start inching its way forward, one at the time. When all the slack has been taken, there may be at least one, but most often two car lengths between myself and the car ahead.
You know what that means.... the car behind starts honking and displaying other rude manners, meaning that I've to restart my engine for the remainder of the wait.
Is this behavior prevalent where you drive? And I don't mean the honking, but the cars inching ahead during a red light.
At least where I drive, it is quite useless.
The reason being that at the traffic lights where it makes sense (lasting longer than say, 15 secs wait), the vehicles leave several feet between one and the other as they stop.
A few seconds later, they start inching its way forward, one at the time. When all the slack has been taken, there may be at least one, but most often two car lengths between myself and the car ahead.
You know what that means.... the car behind starts honking and displaying other rude manners, meaning that I've to restart my engine for the remainder of the wait.
Is this behavior prevalent where you drive? And I don't mean the honking, but the cars inching ahead during a red light.
Thread Starter
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Energy Independence!
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 310
From: South Texas
Re: Is Autostop....useless??
Originally Posted by bluecivichybrid
autostop is not useless. are u kidding me?
Yes the cars inch forward here too. Here's what you do: stop very very close behind the vehicle in front of you when you come to a red light. If the car doesn't inch forward that far, the cars behind you won't have a reason to start honking.
However if the car in front of you inches forward quite a bit, take your foot off the brake and follow it, then stop. shift to N, pull the handbrake, and turn off the engine. when the light turns green, start the engine again, shift to D and release the handbrake.
Yes the cars inch forward here too. Here's what you do: stop very very close behind the vehicle in front of you when you come to a red light. If the car doesn't inch forward that far, the cars behind you won't have a reason to start honking.
However if the car in front of you inches forward quite a bit, take your foot off the brake and follow it, then stop. shift to N, pull the handbrake, and turn off the engine. when the light turns green, start the engine again, shift to D and release the handbrake.
Ridiculously Active Enthusiast
Joined: May 2004
Posts: 1,518
From: New England
Re: Is Autostop....useless??
I think you would get shot here if you inched your way to red, never heard of that. When I come to a stop, and auto-stop kicks in... I'm planted until the light turns green.
Enchanter, Enthusiast
Joined: May 2004
Posts: 852
From: Seattle, Washington
Re: Is Autostop....useless??
Stand your ground! I know it's difficult, and I'll creep up every now and again. I found that 3 or so car lengths allow you to start, hit the 10 mpg mark, and stop again (engaging the auto stop). A bit easier to do outside of the city I'll admit.
The only obligation you have to those around you is to be safe and attentive. The fact they are bothered with the you allow 20' between the next car is their problem, not yours. It's difficult to be honked at for sure, but you have the right to drive your car the way it was intended to!
As for being obsessed - being stuck in idle is a huge FE killer. If you're early on in the tank, you can actually sit there and watch the mileage drop. Folks just don't understand that. When you passengers complain, ask them the last time they drove 600 miles on a tank of gas....
The only obligation you have to those around you is to be safe and attentive. The fact they are bothered with the you allow 20' between the next car is their problem, not yours. It's difficult to be honked at for sure, but you have the right to drive your car the way it was intended to!
As for being obsessed - being stuck in idle is a huge FE killer. If you're early on in the tank, you can actually sit there and watch the mileage drop. Folks just don't understand that. When you passengers complain, ask them the last time they drove 600 miles on a tank of gas....
Last edited by Tim; Dec 19, 2005 at 12:41 PM.
Ridiculously Active Enthusiast
Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 1,430
From: Phoenix, AZ
Re: Is Autostop....useless??
You are supposed to leave 1.5 car lengths between yourself and cars ahead of you at stoplights ANYWAY for safety reasons, per the Defensive Driving courses I have taken (back before I became a Hypermiler and was a young speedster!) 
Enchanter, Enthusiast
Joined: May 2004
Posts: 852
From: Seattle, Washington
Re: Is Autostop....useless??
Originally Posted by lars-ss
You are supposed to leave 1.5 car lengths between yourself and cars ahead of you at stoplights ANYWAY for safety reasons, per the Defensive Driving courses I have taken (back before I became a Hypermiler and was a young speedster!)
. Leave enough room between you and the next car so that you have room to pull out and get out of there if you have to. Regardless of the reason, extra space is not a bad thing.
Geek
Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 839
From: San Diego
Re: Is Autostop....useless??
Originally Posted by lars-ss
You are supposed to leave 1.5 car lengths between yourself and cars ahead of you at stoplights ANYWAY for safety reasons
...well OK, that applies more to stop-and-go than simply waiting at a red light.
Ridiculously Active Enthusiast
Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 1,120
From: So. California
Re: Is Autostop....useless??
I used to have this problem.
Now if I am stopping for a red light I slow WAY down early so all those cars in front of me have plenty of time to bunch up before I get there.
If space still opens up in front of me, too bad.
Now if I am stopping for a red light I slow WAY down early so all those cars in front of me have plenty of time to bunch up before I get there.
If space still opens up in front of me, too bad.
Ridiculously Active Enthusiast
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 1,682
From: neither here, nor there...
Re: Is Autostop....useless??
Time to start pissing off a few people...
When I'm on my motorcycle, and I see a rather large gap up ahead (I'm talking large. 1,2 and even 3 car lengths. I've seen it!), I'll move up into it. I'm not sure why they leave such a large gap. Probably not paying attention, as most of them have been on their cellphones, gabbing away and oblivious to traffic around them.
Then in my rearview mirrors I'll see the driver that stopped so far back starts to move forward. The look on their face is priceless! Such disdain on their face since now I'm in front of them.
Of course, I haven't done this to a hybrid driver. Just some idiots that are too busy with their cellphones, blackberrys, or reading a book (THAT one surprises me).
When I'm on my motorcycle, and I see a rather large gap up ahead (I'm talking large. 1,2 and even 3 car lengths. I've seen it!), I'll move up into it. I'm not sure why they leave such a large gap. Probably not paying attention, as most of them have been on their cellphones, gabbing away and oblivious to traffic around them.
Then in my rearview mirrors I'll see the driver that stopped so far back starts to move forward. The look on their face is priceless! Such disdain on their face since now I'm in front of them.
Of course, I haven't done this to a hybrid driver. Just some idiots that are too busy with their cellphones, blackberrys, or reading a book (THAT one surprises me).
Dual-Hybrid First Adopter
Joined: Nov 2005
Posts: 192
Re: Is Autostop....useless??
Originally Posted by Civic Duty
...a forced regen down the road, eventually lowering your FE. There's no free lunch.
Not unless you compare the FE to a normally-aspirated Civic with the engine running nonstop. Well.... ok.... if you compare it over the 10 year life of the car....
The question is then, if it were to drop your FE from 50 to 49.75, how many miles would you have to drive to spend a buck, with the difference between the two?
The older I get, the fewer hairs I have left to split that way
