Posted on 06/27/2005 8:37:42 PM PDT by Diddle E. Squat
Drivers in Texas, Iowa, and Indiana will enjoy higher speed limits next month as legislation raising the top speeds on rural roads takes effect.
On Friday, Texas Governor Rick Perry (R) signed HB 2257 into law making 80 MPH the maximum allowable speed in the state. Rural portions of I-10 and I-20 will enjoy the new top speed, while other rural roads could see the limit rise to 75 MPH. Both the state House and Senate adopted the legislation without opposition last month.
On July 1, a law signed by Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack (D) creating a 70 MPH speed limit goes into effect. This new limit better reflects the actual speed of cars on rural highways which averages 69.8 MPH according to sensors embedded into the pavement.
In May, Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels (R) signed SB 217 into law raising the maximum limit from 65 MPH to 70 MPH in areas with less than 50,000 population. The law also raises the limit for trucks from 60 to 65 MPH, and gives a 10 MPH boost to several roads currently posted at 55 MPH. The state will begin placing the higher-limit signs on July 5.
(Excerpt) Read more at thenewspaper.com ...
About two years ago, in a settlement with EPA, they tried to force a 55 mph speed limit for Houston and the surrounding suburban counties. To show the appropriate emissions savings they used EPA's modplan IV. This was an outdated plan. However, using modplan V showed no savings and using the very newest plan showed a degradation. The particular emissions measured are directly proportional to the amount of fuel burned. Ergo, EPA's latest figures show increased fuel consumption when speed is reduced from 70 mph to 55 mph. Houston Metro area Speed limits are back up to 70 mph.
Frankly, I think the only safe place to go at top speeds are in rural areas like Wyoming and Montana without much other traffic and with safe vehicles and tires. I'm concerned about these trucks as well. I'm perfectly happy at 65-70 mph. It also saves fuel. We'll see.
There are other major factors beside wind resistance at play, and if you only look at one factor of course you will get the wrong impression. The efficiency of an engine can vary dramatically across its range, with the optimally efficient speeds being set by the design engineers -- even taking into account wind resistance.
To put it another way, the increase in wind resistance from 60 MPH to 70 MPH is less than the differences in effective output and efficiency of the engine in that same range. Wind resistance is far from being the whole story.
The whole point of diesel-electric rigs or hybrid engines is that the engine can always be running at its optimal efficiency point by decoupling engine output from motion on the road. Even given the significant losses in two-stage conversion process, the much higher efficiency of the combustion engine running optimally more than compensates.
There are several intersections along Interstate 10 between Van Horn and Sierra Blanca. This is the first one of them. This section of Interstate 10 is among the least traveled of the highway's length across the southern tier of the country. (Photo taken 3/14/04)
There is a picture of a yellow diamond-shaped sign clearly denoting an intersection on I-10.
Eenie, meanie, minie.. moe...
nyuck, nyuck, nyuck...
They give people tickets for passing on the right, and for driving in the left (passing) lanes. We should do that here and we could make our roads much safer. It is much more organized to drive in Europe where everyone is keeping right except to pass.
In Florida I'd be fraid of rubber gators much less real ones for high speed fun runs.....not to mention the little gators in court..........LOL !
If ya have a system to beat the DPS speed traps share it if ya will .....
I have a friend that is stuffing a viper engine in a dodge magnum station wagon. He go the body in a semi dented condition cheap and just "bought" the viper engine outright. It is IMHO the current day version of the old Nomad. When he's done I'll post a few pictures.
Snort.
75-80 is about the max I feel comfortable driving in my Full Size van.. any more than that, and one big gust of cross wind can send you half a lane over....
Even in my car, I'd say about 80/85 is my comfort limit.. car can do well over it, but not a speed I would cruise at.
It's true, for the reason I mentioned. It's just another way of their saying they're not going to stop writing tickets for a few weeks just because the speed limit went up.
We'll see :)
Reminds me of the stupid signs some states put on their freeways: "SLOWER TRAFFIC KEEP RIGHT." Obviously, some left-lane squatters read that to mean it applies only to traffic SLOWER THAN ME.
"KEEP RIGHT EXCEPT TO PASS" seems a whole lot smarter, and less open to interpretation.
Just damn.
If you want on the list, FReepmail me. This IS a high-volume PING list...
Power to weight ratio doesn't effect fuel economy at cruising speeds. Power to weight ratios are a determining factor in the fuel burned to reach that speed.
People allow others to pass ny getting the heck out of the left lane. If more jerks would move right to allow faster traffic by, the roads would be safer for all concerned. That's how it works on the Autobahn.
I would have no problem felling comfortable at 100 mph in my Crown Vic, as long as traffic around me was at a relatively similar speed.
I have driven consideably faster than that, but conditions were right for it.
Have you been on I-10 between Houston and San Antonio? Once you get past the greater Houston area (read past Katy) 85-90 is about normal. They don't play and they move over when someone is approaching.
100+ in a Crown Vic? No way... sloppy feel of the steering in one of those babies... unless they've improved that greatly... Just way too easy to oversteer in one of those base fresh off the assembly line. Maybe if it has a sports package that inproved road feedback and feel....
I can and have done well over 100mph, but on a public road in traffic, 80ish is tops for me... of course if I lived out west where the Highways are all flat and straight and drone on forever I might be more comfy at higher speeds... here, where you are going around, over or through a mountain to get anywhere, 80's is fine.
My BS meter is pegged. Maybe it needs recalibration. I know someone's recently been pushing the idea that, for every 1 MPH over 55, it's like adding a nickel to the price of a gallon of gasoline (which is just a way of quantifying the point that fuel economy is worse). Obviously, that's intended to be a very rough average.
Seems to me that the optimal state for fuel economy is the slowest speed at which the engine is turning "relatively effortlessly" in the highest gear. I could be wrong but, it seems like for most modern cars, on flat terrain in no wind, that's between 40 and 50 MPH.
I think that's where my cars with trip computers show their highest fuel economy readings. At any rate, you've given me reason to check. And, I understand those trip computers don't really measure MPG. Mine have proved to be fairly close, though.
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