Posted on 05/23/2008 10:23:11 AM PDT by Entrepreneur
If there's one thing that's worse than paying $4 per gallon for gasoline, it's the resurgent talk of lowering speed limits to conserve fuel.
Because, of course, these lowered limits won't be enforced as a "conservation" measure.
Any curtailment of speed limits will be treated as a saaaaafety issue -- just as happened during the Dark Decades of the 55 mph National Maximum Speed Limit. "Speeding" tickets will be issued and "points" assigned. At the stroke of a lawmaker's pen (and the cop's, too) driving "x" MPH will suddenly become "unsafe," rather than merely wasteful.
This is the most intolerable aspect of the whole scam.
(Excerpt) Read more at spectator.org ...
I try to maintain respect for my elders but ‘the greatest generation’ has slipped badly in my estimation due to their Social Security monomania that keeps people like Jay Rockefeller in office.
It may be untoward to ask but I’ll do it anyway. Seniors have been on this earth for 60, 70, 80 years. At any point during those long decades did these seniors decide to provide for themselves during and after their working years? Isn’t all the moaning about ‘fixed incomes’ a euphemism for ‘we didn’t save for our retirement and must live hand to mouth courtesy of Uncle Sam’s monthly checks’?
I try to maintain respect for my elders but ‘the greatest generation’ has slipped badly in my estimation due to their Social Security monomania that keeps people like Jay Rockefeller in office.
It may be untoward to ask but I’ll do it anyway. Seniors have been on this earth for 60, 70, 80 years. At any point during those long decades did these seniors decide to provide for themselves during and after their working years? Isn’t all the moaning about ‘fixed incomes’ a euphemism for ‘we didn’t save for our retirement and must live hand to mouth courtesy of Uncle Sam’s monthly checks’?
Do that in Atlanta and we’ll hear about you on the traffic report (”vehicle crash in center lane backing up traffic for miles...”). Cruising speed is 80. Doing 55 is downright dangerous.
I always hated the term “fixed income” anyway, as if most working people DON’T have fixed incomes...if you have a salary, you have a FIXED INCOME until your employer decides you deserve a raise! How’s that any different?
I think that it is great that you have found savings that you enjoy in a way that doesn’t cramp your style. At 55 versus 70, my mileage varies by 5-10%, and that is not worth the time spent on the road because I absolutely hate time spent inside a vehicle. I do get savings coupled with exercise by riding my bike if my destination is within five miles and I am able to carry my load within my basket.
Does the term gear ratio's and fuel efficency mean anything to you? A Renault may be most efficent at 55 MPH that is if they don't fly apart first. But a tuned up fuel injected engine in a car or truck will likely use less gas at about 65 MPH. Also let's not forget most vehicles of today have Overdrive. Drive 55 MPH in a lot of places and the vehicle will be in high gear instead of less demanding on fuel usage overdrive a majority of the time.
Actually the Feds were doing traffic studies and if a certain number of vehicles were exceeding the limit by x amount, the state could lose highway funds. This is much like they do with seat belt usage by monitoring the percentage using seatbelts and thretening and/or penalizing the state if there is not a high enough percentage of compliance.
That works, FOR CARS.
The cross-sectional area of trucks and SUVs is so much larger than for cars that drag dominates energy consumption at much lower speeds.
A Dodge Durango, for instance, was recently measured to reach maximum efficiency at a whopping 25 mph.
Big vehicles spend most of their energy on ploughing air.
Try it with the tailgate up.
With the tailgate up, a large horizontal vortex of air forms behind the cab and improves the aerodynamics of the truck.
The National Research Council Canada, Ford Motor Company, and DaimlerChrysler test this, and they've all come to the same conclusion: Driving with the tailgate down decreases highway fuel economy, and removing the tailgate usually makes it worse. In many instances, it also increases rear lift at speeds, an undesirable condition in a vehicle with only a third of its weight back there to start with.
Putting a tonneau or hard bed cover over your truck is the best thing you can do for highway fuel economy.
Jimmy Carter re-incarnated (Obama) just said we just can’t kep driving our SUV’s at 70.
A return to the 55 mph speed limit will bring instant recession and eventual economic depression. The change represents a 22% decline in truck productivity that will ripple down thw whole economy.
Such a decrease in productivity will mean wholsale loss of jobs.
I remember driving with my dad in the early 1960s in Arizona. The highway speed limit sign read:”Resume at safe speed.”
I noticed that average traffic speeds on the PA Turnpike have dropped in recent weeks. Most everybody is strictly observing the 65 limit. Used to be you’d get run over on some stretches if you (only) did the limit.
My point is that people will adjust on their own — and they are. Forcing a uniform National Speed Limit is the worst kind of Top-Down solution.
Gee, USAA was ahead of its time on something else, eh? They were doing 10/4 twenty years ago.
Colonel, USAFR
How many times have you tried it?
Or do you just have a religious belief in whatever expert you happen to be quoting at the moment?
Sweet!
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