“Jack rabbit” starts are the norm here in the San Fran Bay Area. “How fast can I get to that red light up there?” is the order of the day. Having made it to my sixties, I want to slow life down and be sedate, so I use gentle starts and see if I can hit the next light when it turns green. I usually arrive at the changing light just when Mr. Jackrabbit is blasting off again.
It’s great fun to keep catching up to him at every light. My mileage is probably double his.
Cracks me up that people want carbon taxes and sky high fuel prices to “save the earth,” but they won’t change their driving habits one bit.
The driving test cycle you wrote about is about as unrealistic as possible.
Actually Jack Rabbit starts, or at least moderately heavy acceleration has been proven to be more fuel efficient than slowly accelerating, as it allows the car to get into steady-state operation much sooner (i.e., constant speed).
Obviously, though, testing one’s braking distance at every traffic light does not help.