Who Coasts? tips and techniques anyone

[ShadowWorks]

I coast a fair bit to save on fuel, I normally do it when nobody is behind me or I build up more speed than I need and coast all the way to the red lights or the next junction.

I can coast 400 meters easy on level ground, I try to coast down hills as its all free energy, I know the arguments for not coasting but they do not hold up with my style of driving.i

I have a 6 mile drive to my brothers house and I must coast around 1.5 miles each way, its a small saving but it adds up over a thousand miles.

[theholycow]

You won't find many arguments against it here. Lots of folks here do it. Read threads about "P&G" or "Pulse & Glide". It's made a huge difference in my mileage, giving me the best results I've had. I do it pretty much as you described, trying to do it downhill when possible.

[1cheap1]

I coast uphill, downhill, level, in traffic, no traffic, just about anytime. About the only time i do not do it is when traffic is heavy and everyone is going about 50 with only 1 car length or less between cars. Yes, this is Los Angeles and one booboo and next thing you know 4 to 8 cars pile up. The worse was 102 cars on the 710 in a light fog. The best way to coast is up to a big truck, eoc and if you do it right you maintain it at a constant speed for about 5 to 10 seconds before you start losing speed. The more you practice the better you will get. Just yesterday i went 4 miles in city traffic and stop signs and only used power about 1.8 miles.

[R.I.D.E.]

In an experiment I coasted for 13 minutes 45 seconds out of 18 minutes. Mileage was close to 100. Not practical in any traffic.


regards
gary

[1993CivicVX]

Originally Posted by ShadowWorks

I coast a fair bit to save on fuel, I normally do it when nobody is behind me or I build up more speed than I need and coast all the way to the red lights or the next junction.

I can coast 400 meters easy on level ground, I try to coast down hills as its all free energy, I know the arguments for not coasting but they do not hold up with my style of driving.i

I have a 6 mile drive to my brothers house and I must coast around 1.5 miles each way, its a small saving but it adds up over a thousand miles.

My car goes into open loop every 90 seconds if I don't turn the engine off--so I'm sort of forced into doing ridiculous amounts of engine off coasting. Sometimes I put on my seat belt when I coast down long hills and pick up speed. It makes me feel a little more secure seeing as my stopping time is slightly compromised when the engine is off, but overall for me the savings far outweigh the risk.

[ShadowWorks]

Originally Posted by 1993CivicVX

It makes me feel a little more secure seeing as my stopping time is slightly compromised when the engine is off.

I can't do that unfortunately because my car has power steering and power assisted braking, if I turned my engine off in a coasting or glide mode I would only have 10% braking power and the steering gets close to impossible to turn.

Do you guys think a little more Psi in your tires is better for coasting?

What do you guys thinking about putting nitrogen in your tires instead of regular air which is heavier?

[theholycow]

More PSI in the tires definitely helps coasting, people report far longer coasts. If you're concerned about safety or wear, take a look at the tire pressure link in my sig.

Have you tried EOC at all? Most power brakes will work at full power for a couple applications/braking events, and at speed, power steering ought to be ok. I certainly wouldn't want to convince someone to try it if they're uncomfortable with it, but it's different for each car and driver.

Nitrogen in your tires will not help FE. Air is already 78% nitrogen anyway.

[theholycow]

That's a pretty decent article, far less doom-and-gloom than many articles about hypermiling. One annoying thing is that they twice make drafting out to mean unsafely tailgating. In fact, the most effective drafting requires you to be back in a 2 to 3 second following distance, which puts you in the trucker's visibility zone as well as the appropriate distance taught to kids in public drivers education courses.

[GasSavers_jkandell]

I think coasting is the most important way to increase mileage in urban driving. You can easily get several hundred miles per gallon while coasting in neutral, which offsets the low-zero mpgs in other urban driving situations. Even short glides add up, but don't be afraid to coast much further as you get more skilled. You'll be surprised how far from the light you can start coasting. (I aim for half miles.)

Tips for Coasting:

• Accelerate before coasting if that enables you to coast all the way to the light. Sometimes the smallest acceleration will really pay off in coasting distance; and, opposite to normal driving, the faster you're coasting the more mpg you're getting.
• Look far ahead to anticipate stopping early. Start your coast as soon as you feel you're going to have to slow. Scan the pedestrian crosswalk signals to gauge if traffic lights are "stale" and will turn before you arrive. Learn how traffic flow coming toward you and cross traffic ahead predict lights. Scan the brake lights of cars way ahead. Look for pedestrians, turn signals, construction, school zones, stop signs. Scanning the distance not only saves gas, it's safer.
• Scan behind as well as ahead. To be courteous you want to coast at a speed that flows with traffic. Before shifting to neutral, decide if you have to accelerate to be at the speed cars behind will be as they catch up. Allow yourself an extended coast when you're the last one through a light or the last car in a pack.
• Take full advantage of downhill inclines to coast far and maintain speed. However, accelerate on the downhill if it allows you to avoid accelerating on the uphill.
• "Pulse and glide" is an efficient technique for slow speeds and short distances like neighborhood streets and parking lots. You accelerate to slightly faster than you need, then coast as far as you can, and repeat as necessary. You can also pulse and glide to inch forward at stoplights with slight blips of the gas pedal.
• Leave plenty of distance between you and the cars ahead in order to control your own driving style and to create coasting opportunities. This is also safer.
• Instead of mindlessly tapping brakes in reaction to the person ahead, consider shifting to neutral and being ready to brake. People tend to tap their brakes out of habit, so it's mostly a "false alarm".[9]
• Coast the final distance to your parking spot at work and into your garage at home. With experience, you'll be surprised how far back you can begin.

[ShadowWorks]

I noticed cars can speed up even on a very gentle gradient, this happened when I was getting towed home, my brothers car in gear would keep a constant speed on these gradients but the rope would slacken as my car accelerated, I had to touch the brakes to put the tension in the rope again, the road looked dead level, maybe this is the vacuum being made by the towing car as well?
I was around 8 feet behind the bumper, is this close enough to be in the clean air?