Light Timing

Normally when coming home from work I get stuck by three red lights, a few days ago the lights were all green, a fourth is always red and this day was no different. I achieved 80 MPG on my commute home that night, where the best I typically can achieve is 70-73 MPG.

After those lights I have a commute that is nearly all highway miles, a nearly perfect scenario for the 2006-2010 Honda Civic Hybrid.

This is why we teach conservation of kinetic energy with such relentlessness in all of the Hybrid and Hypermiling clubs. It is easier to keep your car in motion, even if it is only 15 miles an hour, versus accelerating from a complete stop. So if I see a yellow light I either can’t make or where making the light would be a stretch, I won’t speed up to it, I’ll coast up to the light as it turns red. If I time everything right and it is a light I’m familiar with, I can arrive at the stop bar exactly when the light turns green and I can continue without having to stop! (In South Carolina it is very important to check for red-light runners before you proceed though.)

Remember, it isn’t necessary to use all of the hypermiling techniques when starting, it is adding all these little techniques together that brings us to the huge MPG numbers we achieve.

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Kacey Green
for the Midlands Hybrid Club, "Choose green personal transportation." The Midlands Hybrid Club, is the home of the hybrid and hypermiling club of the Carolinas, based in Columbia, SC.