Every year, the New Oxford American Dictionary announces its word of the year: "hypermiling."
“Hypermiling” was coined in 2004 by Wayne Gerdes, who runs this web site. “Hypermiling” or “to hypermile” is to attempt to maximize gas mileage by making fuel-conserving adjustments to one’s car and one’s driving techniques. Rather than aiming for good mileage or even great mileage, hypermilers seek to push their gas tanks to the limit and achieve hypermileage, exceeding EPA ratings for miles per gallon.
Many of the methods followed by hypermilers are basic common sense—drive the speed limit, avoid hills and stop-and-go traffic, maintain proper tire pressure, don’t let your car idle, get rid of excess cargo—but others practiced by some devotees may seem slightly eccentric:
• driving without shoes (to increase the foot’s sensitivity on the pedals)
• parking so that you don’t have to back up to exit the space
• “ridge-riding” or driving with your tires lined up with the white line at the edge of the road to avoid driving through water-filled ruts in the road when it’s raining
Other words of the year finalists and shortlist include: frugalista, topless meeting (not what you think), carrotmob, link bait and so on.
Link - Thanks Rebecca Ford!
Previously on Neatorama: 2007 Word of the Year: Locavore
The only reason drafting is mentioned on CleanMPG is to describe how absurd it is. Safety is a priority.
To Senor:
Does driving the speedlimit warrant the slanderous remark? You must be a follower of AAA.
Of course, that could be a testament to a) my city's not-so-impressive roads, b) my not-so-impressive Mariokart skills or c) both.
As you wish!
There has NEVER been an accident involving Hypermiling as the cause. There have been MANY accidents with people driving 65 on a 65mph road and get rear ended by someone running 90.
and more accidents are probably because driving too slow is just as dangerous as driving too fast, and so traffic in an attempt to flow around the one idiot going way too slow to get that extra mile can cause dangerous situations for all the other drivers.