Drive 55?

[EricMM]

From the pages of treehugger.com, no less...

In the last oil crisis of the '70's, Alternet says that America pulled together and reduced their driving speeds across the country to 55 MPH to save fuel. However they continue with "Fundamental rights were at stake. How dare the government infringe on the "flow of commerce" and my right to declare my independence with the speedometer of my automobile (not to mention odometer). By the late 80s, Americans were driving gas-guzzling Jimmys, Jeeps, Blazers and Broncos 75 mph through the light truck loop-hole in the CAFE standards. Fifty-five became a number from America's past." Is it time to deal with this climate and oil crisis and return to 55?

[Guest George's Box]

America didn't "pull together" to drive 55 so much as it was legislated into doing so. I was under the impression that most cars are more efficient at higher speeds, anyway. I think the solution is to drive more efficient cars and drive faster. Speed limits that low are fucking bullshit, especially in rural areas where there's nothing but open road for miles and miles. Go 90 in the left when it's safe to do so; I don't give a shit and neither should anyone. As for enforcing the speed limits we have now, I think some places already enforce them too much, and all it would do would be a pain in the ass for anybody trying to get anywhere. Can you imagine having to drive from Chicago to Champaign and never going above 55 mph? Fuck that.

[EricMM]

Wrong.

 

Cars are most efficent from 40-50.

 

Above that the wind resistance dramatically lowers efficency.

[Perfxion]

Uh, tell that to Mustangs, Comeros, Vets, and all other muscle and performace cars. It does more damage to the car doing under 40 than going over 60.

 

Almost all cars these days can go 40 to 80 without a problem. Hell, even big ass land boats can cruise at high speed. Speed limits don't save gas, constantly staying at a speed without high revs will save gas. I currently have a Jeep Grand Cher. and I can coast on the highway at 75 mphs going 27 miles per gallon.

[Guest George's Box]

A popular Sammy Hagar song. There, the reference is now out of play, so we can continue on.

 

MX is right and we should all do what he tells us to. My stance is that you shouldn't drive if you don't have to, but if you're on a big stretch of interstate, floor it and go 80. Saves time.

 

As for the efficiency question, maybe Eric is right, maybe MX is right, but I know I'm right when I say if you try to enforce a 55-mph speed limit, you'll fail.

[Ripper]

I'll be damned if i am taking longer than 2 hours to get 120 miles. FUCK that.

[Slayer]

I do a lot of country driving for my job, and while I admire the scenery... no, I'm not dragging that drive out

[Dandy]

I watched a video on metacafe about increasing your car's mpg. A lot of it was keeping your tires inflated to the appropriate pounds, decreasing weight in your car, etc. However, the last thing the guy did was put 2 oz of acetone into every 10 gallons of gas he got. After everything he did, he doubled his mpg from 17 to 34.

 

 

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/524517/doubl...gas_mileage_2x/

 

 

Edit---Acetone, not acetate.

[Jer]

Pfft no way. I'm all for saving the planet, but I'm not going to give days of my life up for it. I've driven my car 50,000 miles over the last two years. At 75 mph, that'd be 666 hours. At 55 mph, that would have been 909 hours. Thats over *ten days* I would have lost, just in the last two years, for some marginal gas savings. No thanks.

[NoCalMike]

If you drive during rush hour, you are lucky to be driving 55mph......

[Guest Vitamin X]

Eric, I'm sorry but I'm going to have to disagree with that point of view. Cars ARE most fuel efficient driving at a constant high speed and slow acceleration (the only damage really occurs to the oil in your car which burns at a higher and faster rate), and reducing it to 55 MPH would only increase in the amount of tickets police officers would be giving out, and I'm all for the least police intervention possible when driving my car. Since I've become accustomed to ridiculously long drives from all the cross country action my car's gotten, I have a tendency to floor it in long, rural stretches of the country and it's never endangered anyone, or burn fuel faster.

 

With that said, the biggest challenge in reducing gas consumption is constructing more "people-friendly" cities- Portland is a great model for this, but even here we have a lot of challenges with mass transit, particularly that light rail trains, especially in any city outside of here or New York, don't run very far and don't run too late at night, making it inconvenient for a great number of people. In smaller cities, having a good, efficient light rail system coupled with the expansion of bike lanes and people getting to work or school or whatever on their bikes would help solve two of the country's biggest problems- obesity and gas consumption. Burn fat, not fuel, people.

 

Of course this point is moot in southern, ridiculously hot areas, like Miami. In that case, you just really need to expand mass transit, which I've heard that they're doing to combat the incredibly bad traffic infrastructure they have in place.

[Your Paragon of Virtue]

Sure we might save a few lives, but millions will be late!

[Maztinho]

Also cars in the 70's where primarily all metal whereas now they are plastics.

 

And nobody is going to go back to 55 MPH.

 

NOBODY!

[Guest George's Box]

Sure we might save a few lives, but millions will be late!

The Canadian Snuffbox chimes in.

[Big Ol' Smitty]

Sure we might save a few lives, but millions will be late!

The Canadian Snuffbox chimes in.

 

You know that's a Simpsons quote, right?

[2GOLD]

It's still 55 here on most of our main roads, sometimes 50 or below. The only one above 55 is SR1 which is 65 and if you try to even think about running 55 on that road, you will get yourself or someone else killed.

 

The cops don't enforce the speed limit, blame them.

[Guest George's Box]

Sure we might save a few lives, but millions will be late!

The Canadian Snuffbox chimes in.

 

You know that's a Simpsons quote, right?

No, I did not; my mental Simpsons quote repository isn't what it used to be.

[Maztinho]

Around here (Southern Utah) it's 75 everywhere, you get 65 in Northern Utah along the Wasatch Front (Provo to SLC) but the rest of the state is at 75. Most everywhere in Vegas it's 75 as well until you get more into the Spaghetti Bowl part of town.

[Guest George's Box]

For expressways/freeways/whatever you call things with ramps and exits, it should be 60 in the cities, 70 in outlying suburbs, and 80 in the country as long as it's situationally reasonable to do so. I think this is a great idea.

[Your Paragon of Virtue]

Sure we might save a few lives, but millions will be late!

The Canadian Snuffbox chimes in.

 

You know that's a Simpsons quote, right?

No, I did not; my mental Simpsons quote repository isn't what it used to be.

 

I thought we were friends man. That's harsh.

[Jaxxson Mayhem]

The main highway around the city is 55, and is utter and complete bullshit. Try going 55 on it and you'll get run off the road with the quickness. Since it's within city limits, they say they have to keep it at 55.

[Rendclaw]

I drive for a living. From A2 to Madison Heights to Flint and back again, five nights a week. I drive a 22 foot box truck and before then, a 16-footer.

 

I drive as fast as I dare to on the highways. I can honestly say that the Detroit metro area would come to a screeching halt if the speed limits around here (which by the way got the speed limits for trucks recently *raised* from 55 to 60) got dropped back down to 55.

 

Our current situation is a combination of greed from the oil companies, OPEC and the oil sheiks, the auto manufacturers, and of course our good old Uncle Sam. We should have been driving alternative fuel vehicles by now, this is 2007. After the first oil crisis, the writing was on the wall. No one who truly mattered listened.

 

And now, thanks to our fearless leaders in office who decided to go to war on false pretenses.

 

And its going to take a lot of things to fall the right way to get this nation, and subsequently the world, out of the mess we are in.

[EricMM]

For those saying cars more efficently at 75 and 80 than at 55, take a few lessons in fluid dynamics, and wind resistance...

[Guest George's Box]

Suddenly EricMM is the janitor from Scrubs. If you have some time after you're done teaching your section of 100-level physics, I've got this thing on my elbow that's kind of flaky and red, do you think it's infected?

[NoCalMike]

Suddenly EricMM is the janitor from Scrubs. If you have some time after you're done teaching your section of 100-level physics, I've got this thing on my elbow that's kind of flaky and red, do you think it's infected?

 

I am no expert, but from everything I have heard, cars are a lot less efficient the faster you go. What have you heard, besides the fact that you like to drive faster, to the contrary? Whenever you buy a car, doesn't it specifically say that you get higher MPG during city driving then highway driving?

 

We need better public transportation systems in this country. In the Bay Area BART is pretty good, but here in Sacramento we have a light rail system that doesn't cover most of the city and stops running way to early to accomodate anyone wanting to participate in after-hours activities. Of course I am sure the oil lobby among other industries don't want people driving less on the roadways.

[Guest George's Box]

No, friend, it says the opposite: you get better mileage on the highway than in the city, because you're not starting and stopping, which expends more energy. Now this is just strictly anecdotal from seeing a shitload of car commercials on television, but I could probably find and post a seven-page article if sufficiently pressed. The whole reason that this Drive 55 shit is inherently flawed is because that's where most of our driving is done. The concern isn't that we waste too much fuel on the expressway now and then, we waste it getting stuck in bad traffic on surface roads and city streets. Setting the speed limit at 55 where it's 65 or 70 doesn't address everybody burning gas on roads where the limit is 30, and that's a problem that needs to be addressed by improving public transportation, which I'm in favor of, as someone who doesn't particularly enjoy driving a car.

[Guest Tzar Lysergic]

They'll have to shoot me before I'll drive that slow on the interstate.

[Your Paragon of Virtue]

If you were black then going over the speed limit might be reasonable cause. As it stands, you'll probably be alright.

[NoCalMike]

No, friend, it says the opposite: you get better mileage on the highway than in the city, because you're not starting and stopping, which expends more energy. Now this is just strictly anecdotal from seeing a shitload of car commercials on television, but I could probably find and post a seven-page article if sufficiently pressed. The whole reason that this Drive 55 shit is inherently flawed is because that's where most of our driving is done. The concern isn't that we waste too much fuel on the expressway now and then, we waste it getting stuck in bad traffic on surface roads and city streets. Setting the speed limit at 55 where it's 65 or 70 doesn't address everybody burning gas on roads where the limit is 30, and that's a problem that needs to be addressed by improving public transportation, which I'm in favor of, as someone who doesn't particularly enjoy driving a car.

 

 

We can definately agree on those two points. If I could find public transit that would get me to work without it taking 2 hours to go 15-18 miles, I would stop driving to and from work in a flash.

[Big Ol' Smitty]

They'll have to shoot me before I'll drive that slow on the interstate.

 

This guy is tuff.