This is an interesting read, and makes me proud that I use a Gen 4 in an urban environment. If you write a comment at the bottom of Toyota's post, they'll even send you a copy of the study over email Toyota Prius hybrid excels in Rome zero emissions commuting study - Toyota
Low emissions and less stressful driving. An old Top Gear episode on the 2006 S-Class mentioned that there was a study done that showed a driver's heartbeat is 5-6 bpm slower in an S-Class than in a BMW. I.e. you're more relaxed. I'm thinking a hybrid (and an EV) will do the same.
Not necessarily slow. Just drive calmly. I was following a CLS (Well he was behind me for a bit but he kept close so I changed lanes to let him pass and then changed back behind him. I was in the curb lane). And he was just hopping between the curb and the middle lane. When he eventually turned off the main road, I was maybe 200-300m behind him. Yet I was P&G and he was tailgating at times. He wasn't aggressively driving (aside from following a bit close) but goes to show that in traffic, just go with the flow. I got better mileage doing that.
I had that the other day - in a 20 minute commute, a car I spotted changing lanes seemingly without thought, and mostly trying to hog the "fast lane" - definitely without looking ahead - was beside me at the off-ramp. I'd calmly sat in the slow lane 95% of the time using DRCC. Often, our slow lane is the fastest.
Ya mythbusters tested that and the car changing lanes to try to get to the fastest lane all the time only beat other cars by an insignificant amount of time. They said the stress made it completely not worth it. Don't think they talked about the poorer mpg but that's also a reason not to do it.
I can believe that. I used to drive a Lexus LS400. I have a bunch of heart rate monitors, you've given me an idea to track my heart rate during my drives. Although, would need to drive the same route in a different car to compare.
