Do you have a long commute everyday?

[smark]

Wheel chair racing, to the bathroom

[a2jack]

Karl+Jwight. What's the point of breaking threads?

Bradgarbus asked a question and deserved a straight answer. A2Jack

[jwight]

I'm sure the thread will survive.

[a2jack]

Not if you keep doing it...

[smark]

Boys get a room

[Smart Enuf]

Originally Posted by smark

It's a car, acts like any other car on the highway. Its a hand full on really windy days. Cruise control is a big NO NO in rush hour traffic, at 65 to 75 mph. I drive 38 miles round trip.

Why would it matter whether you're on cruise control at 65 or 75 mph? If the traffic is flowing smoothly at 65 or more, it should make no difference whether you're on cruise or not. If the traffic is stop-and-go, it is obvious you don't activate the cruise control. Even if you did, the constant braking would make activating the CC an exercise in futility.

And the OP never said anything about it being windy, but even if it was, why is being windy even relevant? Are you saying you drive better when it's windy with your foot on the accelerator than you do with cruise control on? That's nonsensical. The wind doesn't care whether you're on cruise or not; your car behaves the same aerodynamically at 65 whether you're manually controlling the accelerator or having the computer control it for you via CC.

Bottom line is you still have to pay attention to your surroundings and you still have to use your brain, irrespective of whether cruise control is on or not. Cruise control doesn't let you shut down that most important tool between your ears. But it does ease the stress on your legs and lets you focus more on other aspects of driving. My $0.02.

[JPaul]

Originally Posted by bradgarbus

I will be (very soon) doing about 65 miles per day in my little smart car.
Has anyone been doing this and what has been your experience?
Any advice?

It may be my car (and I've asked the shop to check it out, to no avail, all is fine) but... 65 is not the smoothest speed. At 55-60 it's fine; around 65 it's a bit edgy, it twists a bit; but at 65+ a thad it's again smoother. Just MY experience with my car... (I-95 HOV. Now I'm jinxed!)

[smark]

Smartenuf. Cruise control really works great, in stop and go traffic on the highway. It frees up one foot, to talk on a cell phone. Cruise control is used for long distance highway driving, not rush hour commuting, with a lot of bumper to bumper traffic. I don't won't to be in front of you when your brain shuts, and you have you cruise going.

[Smart Enuf]

Originally Posted by smark

Smartenuf. Cruise control really works great, in stop and go traffic on the highway. It frees up one foot, to talk on a cell phone. Cruise control is used for long distance highway driving, not rush hour commuting, with a lot of bumper to bumper traffic. I don't won't to be in front of you when your brain shuts, and you have you cruise going.

Perhaps you have simian talents that I don't have. But I don't recall ever using my foot to talk on the cellphone. I simply don't have the grasping ability, and my big toe does a poor job of simulating an opposable thumb. It would be a nice advantage since I guess technically that would meet the hands-free law.

What I said was:

If the traffic is stop-and-go, it is obvious you don't activate the cruise control. Even if you did, the constant braking would make activating the CC an exercise in futility.

What part of this don't you understand? If you read my post, you would see that I agreed with you that CC makes sense in smoothly flowing traffic but not in stop-and-go traffic, and you couldn't use it in stop-and-go even if you wanted to because activating the brakes deactivates the CC.

So are you being intentionally obtuse?

[unicycle]

My commute, to return to the original Q (so sorry!) is about 170 miles a day; I drive an additional 10-30 miles a day with errands. As for the two long drives, I recommend an mp3 player and some of your fave podcasts (Car Talk, Fresh Air, Sex is Fun... they're all free, and there are lots more). When you get tired of those, switch to books on tape (on CD, really); I've listened to about two books a week for a few months now. It's especially fun to get into a series or an author.

As for cruise control: it's lovely, but I'm against it bc it's not ideal for hypermiling. It certainly doesn't affect safety since it turn off when you brake. When I borrowed a Prius for a few days, I used CC and loved it. I also used it today on my other car. It's never been a problem.