Today one of those ginormous Ram pickups with the telltale bumper sticker blew by me doing around 55 mph on a minor thoroughfare where the speed limit was 35. Then he swerved in front of me and slammed on his brakes because that pesky stoplight turned red. Meanwhile, I coasted to a stop using regenerative braking. Yes, I was the slowpoke doing the speed limit. After all, it was a school zone.

These days, there are more Prius owners, but I still park my car at the far end of the mall parking lot. I’ve had my car dinged enough times to know better. Now, three years later, I have become a smug driver, but it hasn’t been easy. First of all, the estimated 60 miles per gallon that Toyota first claimed for the Prius is a pipedream. The best mileage I ever got was around 56, but that was with careful driving and it didn’t last the entire tank. As with most cars, it’s entirely possible to get horrible gas mileage with a hybrid.

Like an all-gas engine, if you gun the motor, speed up too quickly, or slam on the brakes too fast, you will burn up your precious gas. I’ve learned that my car gets terrible mileage between 48 and 70 miles per hour, and worse with the cruise control on (terrible - meaning around 40 mpg.) I’ve also learned to take advantage of coasting to improve my mileage, and to look far enough ahead to not make any sudden stops or turns. Every little bit helps.

All around me, I see people flying around in monstrous machines using up precious fuel. I’m as far away from a tree-hugging liberal as you can get, but sometimes I shake my head at how badly they are driving. Don’t they know they’re getting bad mileage? Doesn't it matter to them? What kind of job do they have where they make enough money that it doesn't matter? My husband used to own a Tahoe. When it started to cost almost $100 to fill up that gas hog, it was time to unload.

The current spike in gas prices are still going to make me slightly unhappy. No one likes to pay more money for any commodity. I’m pretty sure that by the end of this summer — which promises to be the worst in history with regard to gas prices — I’ll still be a smug driver.