I am having trouble deciding which route to take to work. I have a very short commute, approx. 5 miles, but I do have a choice on at one point to take the a short section of highway or stay on city streets. Here are the specifics:

My morning commute is before 5 am. The routes are identical for the first 3 miles or so, then I can make a decision. One direction takes me on the highway. This direction I have to climb a fairly decent hill, but then I pretty much coast to until I get off the highway back on to city streets. The other direction I will still have a hill climb, just not as high but a little more drawn out going up and shorter going down. When I go this way I have to go through the city to get to the office and I have to deal with at up to 10 red lights, which seem to have no timing that I can match.

I would be interested to hearing comments about which way would be best. I have an idea when it finally decides to turn cold my short commute may be a killer for my gas mileage so I would like to take the direction that will hurt the least.

Billy

Well, I have a short commute also, with about 12 lights. I usually hit more than half of them green.

The real hit on MPG is when you are accelerating back to speed from a dead stop. That means every time you catch a red light, your MPG suffers A LOT. Even if you accelerate slowly, you are getting LOW numbers until you can assume a cruising speed. The fact that the car is not warmed up is also a culprit for hurting the morning commute MPG.

My best advice is to find two days who have nearly identical weather (use weather.com to find them) and do each commute one time with a cleared Trip meter and compare. If you hit 8 red lights on the city part of the commute, that's OK because that will be representative of what might sometimes happen.

I like to avoid the highway when I can because long stretches of 37-42 MPH seem to be best for my MPG in my 2004 manual tranny HCH, much better than 55-65 mph on the highway.

Good Luck !!!

I agree. I have a MT HCH as well and it likes to go somewhere around 45 for best mileage. I've got to go a little faster because it is hilly in these parts and if I hit a hill at 37 I'm not gonna make it over.

Still nothing says you are required to keep up with traffic. The minimums on most highways is 45 and going 50 will still result in better mileage compaired to 70 or 80. I really love going 50 in a 70 in a Vette! People are freaked out and some will not pass even on a multilane divided highway. They seem to assume you are speeding and don't want to pass, LOL!

They seem to assume you are speeding and don't want to pass, LOL!

[/quote]
That's funny! You'd think they'd look at their own speedometer huh?

I like lars-ss's idea about taking both routes and compare.

I've noticed that one day I'll get exceptional MPG but then the next day take the same route in seemingly identical weather and traffic I'll get less results.
I've never really figured that one out.

What I'd suggest if possible to take both routes in the same day, a few times even on a weekend morning or other low traffic day. You might even be able to simulate driving your traffic condiions.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I will try to drive both routes and use the trip to see which one does the best. Usually when I am going to work the highway route is relatively empty so I average around 50 MPH, except when I start down hill. I normally get up to 60 - 65 (using little gas) and I come close to coasting to my exit.

I can see some experimentation in my future.

Billy