hypermiling excuses

There is a common impression that "hypermiling" == driving way under
posted speed limits. The difference that has to be taken into
account is whether that's *sustained* or not -- people driving for
MPG may take longer to accelerate and coast down, certainly, but
that adds almost no time to anyone's trip especially when traffic
lights are involved [the "great equalizer"]. Accusations of "holding
up traffic" carry absolutely no weight during takeoffs or stops,
only if a leading driver stays unacceptably below an acceptable speed
over the long haul. [We'll ignore "extreme" events like MPG
competitions, when we simply move over and wave the redneck's pickup
on by us well in advance.]
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But there are plenty of times that someone needs to go slowly for
safety and routing reasons. See this exchange for an interesting
difference in views, and consider that anyone, regardless of what
they're driving, is likely to be much more erratic when they're
trying to find a destination in a strange town! In fact I've had
minor face-offs with other friends [?] accusing me of intrusive
"hypermiling" on public ways when in fact I *was* a bit lost and
trying to find a turn. That's bloody ridiculous, and if our roles
had been swapped I'm sure they would have been full of excuses too.
.
So next time someone hands you crap, you can try saying "I'm not
hypermiling, I'm lost!" The last thing anyone who's trying to zero
in on where they're going needs is aggressive pressure and presence
from other drivers just because they think they already know where
they're going. If the other drivers have any brains whatsoever,
they'll back way off from someone driving as the livejournal post
described -- drunk, lost, distracted, you *don't* want to be anywhere
near that without plenty of safe room to finally pass. I'm not sure
how the person made a mental bridge between that kind of erratic and
clearly not MPG-sensitive behavior and smooth, efficient driving, but
it points up a very common and complete misunderstanding.
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[edit: added URL for "this exchange", oops]
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_H*