55 MPH - are you willing to sacrifice?
Submitted by PAforClark on October 6, 2007 - 3:20pm.
Energy
How difficult could it be to have Congress reset the national speed limit to 55 MPH? It would something everyone could be involved with and would have some real benefits to the US.
Would you drive 55?
"On the highway, try not to exceed a speed of 55 miles per hour. Not only are you less likely to get into an accident, but the faster you drive, the more fuel your vehicle consumes per mile. That means more money and more greenhouse gases.
At 65 mph you’re burning 10% more fuel than at 55, according to the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy. At 70 you lose 17% of your fuel economy, and at 75 it’s 25%. The numbers get worse from there.
Even though you may thrive off living in the fast lane, if the national speed limit were reset to 55, it would save 1 billion barrels of oil per year — more than the U.S. imports from the Persian Gulf.
The reason why is simple physics. As your engine heats up at higher speeds, it burns gas faster. Plus, all that increasing resistance from air and road drag you down."
Some tollroads are similar to the Indy 500 most of the time, and that includes all vehicles, not just 18-wheelers.
Best solution is 0 mph - walk, ride a bike, or carpool. (Hubby and I have been doing this for 4 years now, and we haven't seen a marriage counselor even once!)
Proud to be an American.
Ohio is just about the only place I have driven where (for the most part) trucks are driving the posted speed limit for them. I see a lot of trucks pulled over for speeding in Ohio.
And if they toll Interstate 81 through Pennsylvania as they are talking about, we may all have to slow down for the toll booths!
"It takes two to speak the truth - one to speak and one to hear." - Henry David Thoreau
The big rigs are only allowed to drive the autobahn at night. I wish they could do that here. Better yet, I wish they could make better use of rail transport for shipping stuff and just load the trucks for the shorter runs to destinations trains don't go.
Rail mergers approved with that as one goal, and it has worked to some extent. But its a big country, and lots of stuff gets shipped.
for me! Not only would it offer all the benefits listed, but those of us who drive older, 4-cylinder vehicles would for once be able to drive safely on the high speed freeways that I avoid at all costs.
I doubt many who have bought new cars in the last 5 years will go for it. Most of them are all about how quickly they can get going as fast as they can and how fast they can make it from point A to point B.
Once in a while you get shown the light, In the strangest of places if you look at it right.
but the drivers. They laugh at me at work for driving the speed limit. I always have the last laugh -- I don't get ticket for going 40 MPH in a 25 MPH speed zone as most of my co-workers do!
"It takes two to speak the truth - one to speak and one to hear." - Henry David Thoreau
But the fact that newer cars are made to go faster, quicker encourages people to go -- faster, quicker.
Once in a while you get shown the light, In the strangest of places if you look at it right.
One summer when I was in grad school in the early 70s, I had a summer job in Tulsa, my home town. A sorority sister of my wife's asked me to sing at her wedding in Amarillo. I knew that my boss hailed from Amarillo so I asked him, "Roger, how long will it take to get to Amarillo at 55 mph?"
"You don't understand, Stan," Roger replied. "You'll never get there at 55 mph. It'll just get farther and farther away."
Stan Davis
Lakewood, CO
Wes Clark -- Don't settle for less.
Make America All It Can Be!
No sacrifice here. I don't like driving much faster than that anyway. And what's the dang rush, huh?
Wes Clark: Soldier, Scholar, Statesman.
55 or gas rationing would be great. As the United Stats used less oil, the world wide demand would drop and so too would prices. Russia and Iran live off of these high prices. Conservation is better than war. Let's drill for oil in Florida and Alaska too.
It would seem a rational way to help reduce our dependence on fossil fuel. My question is why hasn't any Senator or Congressman suggested it in the past 6 years?
I'm sure George Bush would just tell everyone to go driving (in addition to shopping), but Congress is 435 rational and responsible people (more or less). They could start the push for reduction if they wanted to.
"It takes two to speak the truth - one to speak and one to hear." - Henry David Thoreau
But I know what you mean.
Stan Davis
Lakewood, CO
Wes Clark -- Don't settle for less.
Make America All It Can Be!
Not that it would'nt be worth the recovery effort but if I've read the estimated numbers correctly there are less then 10 billion barrels of technically recoverable crude in each of those locations. The National Geographic Survey estimated between 4 and 14 billion barrels of technically recoverable crude in ANWR. With high confidence at the low number and low confidence at the top with an estimated ~8 billion barrels as a middle estimate. The find in the Gulf if I remember is less the 7 billion barrels.
We consume about 22 milion barrels of crude per day in the US. We use about 148 billon gallons of gasoline per year. One barrel of crude yields ~19 gallons of gasoline. So it takes around 7.8 biilion barrels of crude to produce the gasoline the U.S uses in one year. Roughly the total recoverable amount of crude in ANWR. Oil that is expected to take 25 years to completly extract. The gulf find is estimated at less the 7 billion barrels. The two source combined represent around two years of US gasoline consumption.
If those two source could be completely tapped tomorrow and were the U.S's only supply of crude it would last us around 640 days.
More and better public transportation.
Too many places that you need a car to get to.
Wes Clark: Soldier, Scholar, Statesman.
Public transit is the solution. New Jersey has built two light rail lines and both are successful. But neither is in my area. :(
The real story is the River Line running from Trenton to Camden. It was a political thing since nobody goes from Trenton to Camden. But to everyone's surprise ridership is exceeding all projections. Some people are using the line rather than driving to the store and others ride it into Camden and the switch to either a bus or the high speed line into Philly. Since the cost of the light rail plus bus fare is less than the toll to drive over the bridge into Philly it makes sense.
Barry
Are you safer today than you were six years ago?©
This is a hyper-mileage site with a group of enthusiastic drivers who somehow know how to get any car, without tweaking, to perform with a much superior mpg.
Heard these guys on Air America and it was fascinating.
The Forums have info you can use including looking up your model and make.
Do you try and estimate your ETA when driving long distances? I know I do. Make it 60 MPH (a mile a minute) and it would be fine with me.
As your engine heats up at higher speeds, it burns gas faster.
That is just wrong. Thermostats keep the coolant at a constant temperature.
...but those of us who drive older, 4-cylinder vehicles would for once be able to drive safely on the high speed freeways that I avoid at all costs.
My old 1980 Volvo 240 Station Wagon which weighed a ton and a half and had only 114 HP, never had any problems keeping up with traffic. I don't believe there was a newer car on the road that had less HP. It got 28 MPH at 75 MPH. Not bad for an over weight under powered rig. That of course was on the open road going from Las Vegas to Portland!
My current car is a 1993 Volvo 940 Turbo wagon. It can get up and go if I want it to or be as docile as a Golden Retriever. Gets 25 MPH plus on the open road. It can haul more than most SUVs too.
I quit my old job just so I would not have to drive an extra 10,000 miles a year commuting out to the suburbs on congested freeways. I just couldn't take the complete lack of driving etiquette displayed by 90% of the drivers. No situational awareness, not using turn signals, not knowing that their exit was coming up even though they had driven the same route for years etc., etc..
Just keeping your air filter clean, inflating your tires properly and keeping the engine tuned up will give you better mileage than some artificial speed limit which everyone will ignore anyway. Knowing how to drive is an art and a science. You burn less gas getting up to speed quickly than if you take 3 blocks to reach 35 MPH. Drive like there was an egg between your foot and the gas pedal. Maintain an even speed and the proper distance between cars and there won't be the accordion effect of slowing down and speeding up, slowing down and speeding up. Drives me nuts when some asshat in his big SUV or pickup speeds along, gets within 10 feet of the car in front of them and then had to brake and then speed up again. I could go on and on as I'm sure we all could.
I have one rule of driving; never make anyone put on their brakes unnecessarily because of me.
And one more thing, HANG UP AND DRIVE!
John 11:35
I think it was a 1994 Buick Regal I took on a trip to Twin Falls, Idaho with four passengers. It wss a caravan of a troop of actors attending a regional competition. Going 75-80 mph most of the way I got right at 30 mpg. Not bad for a car with lots of zip with it's 3.8 litre engine. GM did a great job matching that engine with the transmission and drive train for optimum performance. My 2003 Regal did almost ss well, but not quite.
My 2004 Toyota Solara with a 3.3 liter engine doe about the same on the road, but only gets 19-21 in town. (In the Denver metro area, you do lots of creepy-crawly driving.)
Stan Davis
Lakewood, CO
Wes Clark -- Don't settle for less.
Make America All It Can Be!
Anything over 30MPH scares the hell outta me.
So, no. No problem at all.
Unless you count the hours I spend at unmarked intersections at busy streets whimpering and panicking, while my husband assures me that "it's OK. Everyone goes through this. Now, please, just drive." That's bound to be wasting fuel.
Honestly, I don't know how you people do this driving thing. I actually feel a millions times safer zipping around on my bicycle. Or at least, used to before it was stolen. :-(
Not in wide-open spaces like we have in Texas. Bet my car gets a lot better mileage doing 75 mph (about 32 mpg) than 95% of the stuff on the road doing 55 mph.
We'll drive 55 mph if the people in the northeast aren't allowed to heat their homes past 50 degrees in the winter (think of all the fuel oil we could save and 50 degrees won't kill you especially if you bundle up with 100% organically-harvested fur since synthetic clothing/blankets tend to use petroleum also)
It's been done. Under Jimmy Carter I believe. Don't try it now on HWY 81 through TN,VA,PA,NY! The 18 wheelers will run over you!