It could be worse. Let's say you have a choice between driving 5 miles at 30 MPG or 10 miles at 50 MPG. Which would you choose? In the second case you're consuming more gas to get the appearance of better fuel mileage. It's silly.

 

I hear you!

Over the past five years on my Insight, I let them get to me on several occasions the first three years. I don't know if more self-restraint or higher gas prices account for less situations like this.

 

So I have some results:

Over a 5 mile trek to school, USING the big decline, I eeked out 54.3 mpg on the way there.

On the way back, over a 5.6 mile trek avoiding the STEEP incline and the hill all together, I got 47.9 mpg.

I decided to get it over with, so I drove BACK to school, again using the steep decline. I floored it for about 100 yards coming out of the side street where I live towards the light just to see how much it would affect my mpg compared to not doing it, and I still managed 53.4 mpg.

I reset, and came back for about 5 miles going UP the STEEP incline. It wasn't as bad as I thought, I got 41.9 mpg.

So there IS a 6 mpg difference in avoiding the hill on the way back. And its only about half a mile out of my way. Considering I have to make this trek EVERY DAY, (Mon-Fri) I am considering using the steep decline THERE to save time, because its usually that I'm running late to class, and using the streets to avoid the mountain on the way back. What does everyone else think ???? Noted, I was holding a steady speed up the hill, usually I try to keep accelerating and still get a decent IFCD reading, so thats actually a best case scenario....

 

With those distances it's becoming one of those trivial pursuit things.

When you avoided the hill you used 5.6/47.9=0.117 gallons of gas.
When you went up the hill you used 5/41.9=0.119 gallons of gas.

So going around the hill saves you 0.002 gallons. At $2.30 per gallon you're saving less than half a cent of gasoline.

How hard are you willing to work for half a penny?

Let's face it. A lot of the obssessive discussion here is about getting hypermiling honors and not about saving our money, our environment, our trade deficit, or our dependence on foreign oil.

 

But you get braging rights to 47.9 mpg

It is the most efficient route as far as fuel goes. Also, people tend to ignore the half a cent. Those 1/2 a cents add up. Also, not having to go over the steep hill will save wear and tear on the car. The next question is how much time was saved one route over the other. That is also a factor to consider.

As far as obsessive discussion about hypermiling, you are right that it gets talked about ALOT. However, the other topics do get discussed frequently as well. This isn't www.talkpoliticsandbeatontheadministration.com so obviously it isn't the focus. Some people do buy hybrids because of the environment or the dependancy on foreign oil, however, once you own your car driving efficently actualy fights against these things. Now I will agree with you that if you drive 5 miles out of your way to get hypermilage instead of driving a shorter distance and using less fuel overal is silly but some people think of it as a contest and realy they bought the car and they should be able to use it any way they want.

Personaly I weigh my routes on which is more efficient fuel wise vs getting the highest milage on my display, but thats my choice.