Originally Posted by
degnaw
If I were to bike the distance, approximately...20 cars would slow to 15mph and accelerate hard back to ~45. Pulling numbers out of my ..., let's say the typical car cruises at 25mpg, takes 1/4 mile to accelerate, and accelerates at 15mpg. Thus, each car uses an additional ~0.006666 gallons of gas when they accelerate past me. Multiplied by 20... makes 0.13 gallons. Man, what a waste of time.
It's also unrealistic for short trips; I get about 300 miles per tank on open roads, but I can't make 100 3 mile trips on a tank of gas because of all the time spent starting the car, idling, accelerating, etc. My gas mileage for my commute is about a third of what it is on the highway.