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gommm

RT @MSE_GuyAnker: Anyone on the iPhone's or iPad's new iOS7 system finding iMessage is not working properly? We've had a few reports of pro?

oddjobong

I too have been taught such a driving style, and for a young person driving a big petrol car, I drive in such a style to save fuel but in a safe manner.

I think generally people are a bit naive to this style, and its so difficult to do when there is a lot of traffic without really annoying fellow motorists.

I find that it is impossible to do during heavy traffic or rush hour, where there are so many cars on the road and the traffic is very stop start. Lots of people seem to think driving quickly and stopping quickly results in lesser journey time.

As for part two of your question, it depends on your environment, but during busy times, then I would advise against it, especially if there are cars behind. You essentially start acting as a traffic controller to benefit yourself at the detriment and safety of other road users.

Plus, modern cars with start-stop technology, such an effect may be negated. After all, switching off an engine completely uses no fuel. No fuel is better than less fuel!

GAZ237

gommm wrote: »

If there is a red traffic light ahead, my instructor encourages me to try to spot it from a distance and drive up to it without using any gas, and to always try to keep the car moving. This is for fuel efficiency.

Here is an example. You are driving down a road at 30mph, and 200m away you see the traffic lights turn to red. There are a few cars in front of you. You take your foot off the gas and gradually drive up to the traffic lights. The ideal situation is that you gradually slow down and the lights change and you can proceed, without your car ever stopping. This is the "ideal" situation.

The bit I am more interested in discussing is as follows. If you are going to overshoot the lights, i.e. even though you are not using gas your car is still going to be at the lights before they change, then you should brake and slow your car at a good distance from the lights, and very slowly roll up to the lights at 5mph, and if you slowed down far enough away, they will change to green before you have to stop. (Just to give an example of timing: If you brake to 5mph at 150m away from the traffic lights, your car would be moving for well over a minute before reaching the traffic lights).

My questions are as follows..

1) Why do I never see anyone doing this? When I'm a passenger or watching other cars drive, they always accelerate right up to the red light and then brake sharply at the end

2) The part where you brake in the road and slow down to 5mph at a far distance away from the lights, and then trundle up to them, seems quite "controversial" to me. Just to confirm, is this reasonable and safe? Does this seem correct to you? Obviously I trust my instructor but there lots of ex-instructors on here too, just looking for a discussion

If there is a red traffic light ahead, my instructor encourages me to try to spot it from a distance and drive up to it without using any gas, and to always try to keep the car moving. This is for fuel efficiency.

Here is an example. You are driving down a road at 30mph, and 200m away you see the traffic lights turn to red. There are a few cars in front of you. You take your foot off the gas and gradually drive up to the traffic lights. The ideal situation is that you gradually slow down and the lights change and you can proceed, without your car ever stopping. This is the "ideal" situation.

---

This bit was ok and normal driving technique.

The rest makes no sense.

Silly question, but are you American?

Just as an add on, braking use's the same amount of fuel as accelerating( in general). Unless you take it out of gear and coast.

oddjobong

what difference does his nationality make?

He asked a question on driving, and wanted an opinion on driving...

NOT a debate about his nationality or the global political economy.

cootuk

In theory it's a great idea.
In practise you will seriously annoy the car behind and would probably be overtaken by a few in quite an aggressive manner.
In practise, just keep up with traffic flow..if you see a red light ahead then decelerate up to the lights but don't crawl along.

vaio

GAZ237 wrote: »

.......Just as an add on, braking uses the same amount of fuel as accelerating( in general). Unless you take it out of gear and coast.

How does that work?

In my car accelerating uses lots of fuel, braking in gear uses no fuel at all and braking out of gear uses however much fuel it needs to run the engine at idle

londonTiger

im leaning towards the fact that your instructor has to fill up the tank not you. so he's going to want you do drive like a granny and maximise profits for him and not bp and shell.

drifting into a red light saves some tiny bit of fuel, i dont think it's much of a gain to be honest. I think it's fine to do in an empty road, when i was doing night shifts i use to have great fuel economy because i use to speed up very slowly and plan my red light stoppages well in advance.

but during peak times it's not feasable because
1) in multiple lines you'll get get cut up and then you'll have to hit the brakes because some car has just cut in with a 3 metre gap
2)its very annoying when you're driving behind someone like that and have to get places fast.

Blackpool_Saver

The reason you don't see it is because once people have passed their tests they don't drive like this. When you have your pass papers you will have enough to contend with just driving on your own without filling your head with all this stuff.
My advice is get your test passed and when you get out on your own, keep a VERY big distance between you and the car in front, that will give you a lot of thinking time, keep this habit up, then think about all these little extras

Blackpool_Saver

londonTiger wrote: »

1) in multiple lines you'll get get cut up and then you'll have to hit the brakes because some car has just cut in with a 3 metre gap
2)its very annoying when you're driving behind someone like that and have to get places fast.

Don't listen to this, he is likely to be driving right up your !!! and is a danger, he wouldn't have to jam his brakes on if he had maintained a big gap let people like this overtake and you drop back until you have your big gap again. You will find that the boy racers and loons who overtake will be waiting at the next set of traffic lights when you catch up and feeling very embarrassed that you are right behind them and their foolish behaviour has got them nowhere.

Moto2

Off course some lights change when they detect a vehicle approaching, depending on how many other sets of lights are in the same group and how much traffic there is, you may get a very quick change or a slow one.
So you need to get your speed right or you'll end up having to stop anyway.
You get used to doing what's needed fairly instinctively in your own neighbourhood or on familiar routes.

Weird_Nev

OP: It's about anticipation.

The instructor is trying to get you to think ahead and plan as much as they are trying to save fuel. It does make sense to keep the car rolling, and it is good practice, but it is very rarely possible in normal traffic conditions.

However, the lesson is not "cruise up to lights" but "Think ahead". The light is green now, will it be green when I get there?
As an inexperienced driver you have lots to think about, even the basic mechanics of controlling the car. By forcing you to lift your vision and not only see your surroundings, but process what they mean and how they may come to affect you, the instructor is instilling an active skill that will serve you well in your driving career.

It's also very useful to have some appreciation of how much a car will slow when you let off the gas in various gears and in various situations, because in motorway driving you should be doing virtually all of the speed control of the car with just the accelerator.

Like many things when we learn, you do it at first in an over-thought, exaggerated manner. Once we're confident, we can built it into our driving more fluidly and it becomes a natural habit.

The reason other people don't do it? Because they forget, they're in a hurry, they're lazy, and they haven't had good instruction like you.

Oh and ignore Gaz, he appears to have gone full retard and is just trying to get a rise out of people on a number of threads.