I have been changed by a Prius. No longer speed as much, (except down hill). No longer follow too close( to be sure to extract as much regen as possible if braking is needed). No longer have jackrabbit starts and then hair raising stops at the next traffic light. (I'm exaggerating, never was really that bad, don't listen to my wife) I cruise like it's a Friday night in July. Steady. Smooth operator. I no long pull out in front of people in traffic, I want plenty of time to accelerate. (unless there is someone behind me that needs to pull out also) Except, I am finding stop signs challenging, the car wants to regenerate right through at a slow speed. And finding a parking place now includes the thought pattern of who will possibly hit me with their door ( parking near another Prius is the 2nd best option after the far reaches of the lot where there is no one.)
Welcome to the better driver crowd My wife used to call me a Type A driver and is amazed at how much I have changed since getting the Prius. Everything about the car just makes you become a more consciencious (sp?) driver.
That is very true indeed. When i bought my yaris brand new (and still is), I would like to park next to or between cars that are more expensive than mine. That why the chance of keying, or other nastiness is reduced.
That about covers it for me too. Though at first I think I was a bit more stressed when driving. Now not so much.
+1 (for the most part). The parking space thing doesn't apply to me since this is probably the narrowest car I've driven, so almost all parking spaces seem to have plenty of side/buffer space.
Which is a good thing as I can not for the life of me back-in straight. The car is always at an angle in the slot!
+1 more.....(mostly ) I still like redline shifting my V-rod when I ride it, and every now and then I enjoy all 320 BHP in my truck when I'm passing a slower driver, or I'll redline shift that vehicle just to enjoy the bliss of converting hydrocarbons into acceleration and engine song....but for the most part, I'm much more sedate behind the wheel (or handlebars) now, than I was pre-Prius. Probably has to do with the fact that the Prius isn't the most exiting car to drive day-to-day, and thus I find myself being satisfied with much less from my other vehicle in terms of acceleration and cornering.
The only thing is driving in the slow lanes means being amongst the friggin semis. I had one almost sideswipe me. Well in this case I wasn't purposely driving slow. I wanted to exit, and the semi wanted to merge into traffic. I was at his side when he turned on his blinkers, I sped up to allow him clearance. But he decided to move into my lane anyways. So much for checking blind spots.
I completely agree! And, this has carried over when I drive our other non-hybrid vehicles too! It's funny, when gas spiked up a few years ago, I noticed a lot of people had changed their driving habits to be more frugal... I haven't noticed that this time around. Dave
Next time......save fuel...slow down...let the semi pull in front of you. Sounds like you were exiting anyway. !!!!
There's a lot of different on-ramps, and you can't help who pulls alongside of you. This on-ramp is a combination on/off access lane. There are two merges into the access, one merge is for one side of the surface road, the other merge is for the other side of the road and they are staggered about 1/2 mile apart. Then once you've merge into the access, you have to change one lane to the left to get on the freeway. The end of the access lane is the exit and you will be forced to exit the freeway. So sometimes you are driving in the right lane waiting to change right into the access lane to exit. Since there are two incoming merging lanes, you will not know what kind of vehicle suddenly merges into the access lane next to you. It's their job to check their blind spots before changing left again into the freeway. I don't know how else to explain it.
+1 And then there's the parking space law. No matter how much less space you take up it will immediately be consumed times two by the idiot parking next to you. That's because the rear end is not as wide as the front. So if you (like me) back in using the side mirror and line up using the side of the car you'll be crooked every time, just like me. It's like trying to park a piece of pie. I read this to my wife and she started laughing. I can't imagine why.
+1 The Prius has improved my driving as well. However, my first scangauge began the process. I had a Subaru Impreza before this and was appalled by the mileage, read about the scangauge, installed and improved overall about 4mpg to 30. My daughter now has that model in her Saturn and has improved her mpg even more. My new scangauge II is especially great for highway driving, even on hills I can constantly monitor mpgs and do much better than 55mpg hiway by eyeing the scangauge. Should be standard equipment in all cars, maybe people would stop racing to red lights!
I am a victim of the Prius "gadgetry". As a software developer and avid gamer I get enamored with technology, stats, and scores. With the real time gas mileage and different screens to toggle showing mpg history, drive train status, and eco status I find myself consistently trying to beat my last "score" (aka mpg). The other day I was able to drive a 27 mile round trip (from my house to softball) and average 62 mpg. Another positive side effect from my desire to beat my last mpg ratings are less stress and anger cause I dont feel in a rush.
Well, I am noticing more and more of the large SUVs and Pickups that travel in and out of DC each day with one person are slowing down, too. I will fall in behind them sometimes to get some draft off the 3 ton barn door they are driving to work, but even they are going to slow for me sometimes. I am usually 50+mpg on a 40 mile commute with a 400' change in elevation between work and home.
