Is this where the hybrid shines?
The only time most hybrids get the same or worse mpg as non-hybrids is when the non hybrid is lighter, smaller, slower, and comparing ONLY highway mpg. In general hybrids beat other cars everywhere when you're truly comparing apples to apples. If you take a 2g Prius and compare it to a same-year auto-trans Matrix for example, you have more or less the same exact platform with the only differences being different tall hatch designs and different drivetrain and the Prius just smokes it in basically everything except maybe 80+mph acceleration. Your case is sort of an ideal case for a hybrid because you actually have a mix of driving conditions, whereas if your commute was highway only you would fairly easily be able to find a non-hybrid that would only suffer slightly in highway mpg compared to a hybrid.
