You're talking about this from the point of view of someone who doesn't hypermile. Standard hypermiling techniques are the definition of predictability. You slow down early for stops and intersections (hell, if you time it right, you never reach any red lights), and you slow down very, very gradually. No sudden deceleration. You don't speed up very, very gradually... instead, you accelerate as normal, because time spent accelerating wastes gas. You maintain a cruising speed without pulling out to overtake if you can. You maintain a rational follow distance because you don't want to slam on the brakes... meaning in a possible twenty car pile-up, you want to be behind a hypermilier.
Ok, so I said I'd stop wasting my life in here, but I noticed this and I guess I felt like I had more life to waste.
I understand the concept of slowing down gradually for a stop light and speeding up efficiently (not sure what "normally" means or if that's optimal efficiency). I also understand that avoiding coming to a stop saves gas and prevents traffic jams (and helps you avoid accidents).
I have seen people who follow at a safe distance create nasty traffic patterns where the jerk behind darts out into the other lane and darts back in because he's used to following too close and standing on his brakes. I've seen people go around someone who appears to be going slow coming up toward a red line because the person behind didn't understand that the person they were following wasn't just going slow, but actually trying to avoid stopping at the light. They didn't want to get caught behind said slowpoke when the light turned green.
People drive automatics, they rely on their brakes, follow too close, cut around people who cruise, ooch in traffic, and generally behave (almost uniformly) like people in a hurry. You are not "the definition of predictability" if you're confusing the people around you who expect you to behave like the other 99% of traffic. The whole point of hypermiling is to behave
differently to conserve gas. Don't try to pretend that you fit right in with everyone else while simultaneously claiming to stand out and be better than everyone else.
You're not behaving predictably on the road. Even to me, who understands what you're doing, because I expect you to behave like all the other 'hats driving out there.
Now, are you increasing danger to anyone? That's much more debatable. There are lots of arguments that driving as described above may be safer. But predictably? not really.
