Unmentioned Energy Fix: A 55 M.P.H. Speed Limit

The New York Times ^ | May 1, 2005 | Jad Mouawad and Simon Romero

[riverrunner]

Yes I am really looking forward to adding another 8 to 10 hrs on my trips out west again. I was a happy camper when they did away with 55.

[usapatriot28]

If you account for all the downsizing and pay cuts that have taken place in the last 25 years we may be paying $5.00 or more per gallon(and I'm guessing here).

Where do you get that from? Over the last 25 years real wages (wages adjusted to inflation) have oscillated up and down, but are currently about 4.2% less today than they were in 1980. That's 4.2% total, not 4.2% a year. (As a historical note, almost all of that drop occurred in 1980, real wages have been fairly flat since '81 and are actually a bit higher than the 25 year average)

On the other hand, gasoline (adjusted for inflation) has fallen by about 50%. It doesn't take a math genius to figure out that if you drop wages by 4.2% and drop price by 50%, you are paying substantially less of your wages into gasoline.

[bdfromlv]

Germany also has most of its transportation needs met by trains, mostly electric. They studies also fail to mention that most of the country had to be completely rebuilt just 60 years ago. Also No one mentions that most of these countries that are examples are the size of Kansas.

[cloud8]

> The 55 mile limit induced recession...

And it made criminals of us all.

[Sooth2222]

I don't think that's "on the clearance table." VW sells a decent number of those.

At nearly $2k under the sticker price? For an economy car?

During the "real", gas-line-type fuel shortages of 1974 and 1979, VW Rabbit diesels sold for the sticker price.... that is, if you were lucky enough to be able to find one.

Carsdirect also quotes $102,120 (sticker price) for the gas-guzzling (EPA 12 MPG (city), 14 MPG (highway) 13 MPG (combined) 469 HP Mercedes-Benz G55 AMG SUV. (Governator Aahrnold drives one!)

Fuel prices are high enough to make people complain, but not high enough for them to change their purchasing or consumption patterns.

Gas is still cheaper than that imported French gassy water!

[djf]

Total baloney.

Might have been true with the old big block V8's and older tranny technology.-

Modern cars get the best mileage between 60 and 75.

[goldstategop]

It doesn't save on fuel and with a 55 MPH limit, it takes longer to where you want to go. In rural states like Montana, a 55 MPH limit makes no sense on the rural stretches between the few inhabited cities. That state has no speed limit. Our freeways were designed for a 65 MPH and should stay that way.

(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)

[Nov3]

Speed doesn't have anything to do with mileage. My truck has an overdrive gear for a reason.

Please you are embarassing yourself. Stick to stuff you know about.

[alrea]

Unmentioned Energy Fix

PRICE

[cripplecreek]

Idiot.

[traumer]

Won't work.
You never get the SUV drivers to go below 70 mph....

[Numbers Guy]

In rural states like Montana, a 55 MPH limit makes no sense on the rural stretches between the few inhabited cities. That state has no speed limit.

I drove a 5.7l V-8 in Montana when the speed limit there was "safe and reasonable" (due to a court case they had to implement a specific limit a few years ago). I probably averaged 100 mph outside the cities. My mileage? 25 mpg, exactly what my car was listed at. And my car, it was like a big dog that finally gets a chance to get out in the open fields and run, the engine was purring.

As others have noted, the notion that cars get maximum fuel efficiency at or around 55 mph is simply asinine. The cars I had were most fuel efficient at 70-80 mph.

Only a Manhattan (NY, not Kansas) resident could come up with something so utterly ignorant.

[Nov3]

Idiot

I assume you are talking about yourself. Your statement was plain ignorant.

[gatorgriz]

I live in Montana and in Montana there's a lot of dirt between light bulbs... So the NYT can take their 55 MPH and pack it where the sun don't shine... What might work in the Northeast Corridor doesn't fit out here in the Big Sky where a short drive to town often exceeds 100 miles; and that's one way.

[cripplecreek]

OK genius, provide me with the evidence of speed being related to gas mileage. After all your comment was nothing but insult that proved nothing but your arrogance minus reason for you to be that way.

[wita]

...and that my friend is the element left out of all of the feel good equations on fuel economy, and that is how much longer the engine will be running at 55 compared to 65 or 75 or 85. Speed and economy are functions of technology, and should not be abandoned for the show side of economy.

My car would be running a day and a half longer on a cross country trip. Miles per gallon be hanged, I can't run an engine two days longer than the 75 MPH cross country trip and say I'm conserving anything, and especially not T I M E. If gas prices remain high that will solve the SUV problem to a point, but only to a point.

Those with large families and those who haul lots of people are needing the large capacity vehicles, not to mention those who have cargo needs of large vehicles because of the work they do. Allowing two idiots who may write an emotional article for the New York Times, to dictate how or what I drive does not sit well with me or anyone else who knows quite specifically what we need for vehicles.

[Lockbox]

Want to save fuel?

Ban Newspapers from printing and delivering their product.

"Print" newspapers on the internet.

Now NYTs if you really want to save wasted fuel you would push this solution!

[dalereed]

"driving at 10 miles an hour above the 65 miles-per-hour"

Total BS!

I get my beswt milage btween 75 and 80.

[NEBUCHADNEZZAR1961]

After steadily rising each year, gasoline demand suddenly stopped growing in 1974 and remained nearly flat for the next decade, keeping oil consumption in check.

What a lie. Demand for gasoline rose and fell with economic good times and bad time. It rose and fell depending on many foreign events such as the 1978 shortfall and Reagan's deregulation. Leave it to the NYT to say its the 55 speed that takes credit.

[Nowhere Man]

There I had to listen to some Fleetwood Mac and Eagles on the radio, now I am finally in the mood to post. B-)

Still though it is time to bring on the "Aw Jeez Guy:"