There appears to be a movement about to reinstate the national speed limit in the name of oil conservation:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/07/03/warner.speed.limit.ap/index.html
Ya know what? I actually think it's a good idea. 55 is probably too low, but 60 or 65 would be just fine. I think this every time I'm tottering along in the slow lane at 70MPH (our speed limit on major highways is 110 km/hr, or ~70 MPH) and am being constantly being passed by soccer moms in their Yukons sailing along at warp 90 while yakking away on the cell phone...
People will still speed.
:iagree: to what bhazard said !!!!!
:iagree:
Speed limit in the Chicago metro area on interstates is 55 mph. If you aren't doing at least 70 mph you will get blown off the road....
This won't work for anyone.... except for the police. I see this as a new cash cow, and that's it. People drive the speed they're going to drive. Lowering the speed limit just allows the authorities to ticket twice as many people. In the name of oil consumption my beautiful hairy ass.
when i was 17-18yo the increased limit was a big deal!
now i dont get my kicks goin fast on public roads(as often :evilgrin: ) so i could care less what they do with the limit...
Considering that most new cars with many more forward gears today compared to when the "double-nickel" law first came about this makes no sense. I know my Mustang actually gets better mileage @ 65 than @ 55. I've computed it--by hand-- more than once.
Lower speeds on roads where it is needed is one thing. This is stupid. The feds will make it look tempting to state and local governments by offering grant money for adjusting the limits to 55....just like in the past.
Therein lies the problem. Some people will do things so blatantly and horrendously past the line that is drawn that it mucks up everything for everyone.
Too bad people will still do 75-85mph constantly. On the highway I always take to school, it turns from 65 to 55. I'm one of only maybe 5% of drivers that actually changes my speed accordingly. I'll be doin ~63 in the 55 and constantly be getting my doors blown off. Oh well, when I pass a cop, I don't have to freak out and slam on my brakes. I just keep cruisin.
YES! I've read an article recently where some consultant firm (yeah, this is sounding pretty vague, I know) tried to find the the optimal driving speed for fuel economy. They said on most European cars on most European roads, 110kph is an ideal cruising speed, to balance traffic needs and fuel economy.
*edit*
Or maybe it was Top Gear. I don't know. :p
it better stay as high as 65 around here... I'd hate to get a speeding ticket in one of my big ass bucket trucks...
im glad v8demon said it,,,,
now i can sit back and eat popcorn.:D
I agree,, 55 uses more gas even in the newer cars.
Did anybody even read where a part of any new legislation would include a study to see what speed cars are most efficient at?
Everyone wants to save money on fuel until somebody tells them they have to...
Yes because thats all we have to do on a daily basis.:punchballs: Yes, I'm a cop BTW.;)
The people who go 85 with a 70 speed limit.. With do 70 in a 55.
Just what America needs.. 3 billion dollars to change over all the speed limit signs.
Leave shiznit alone!!!
And confirming as others have, at 55, most of my vehicles get worse mpg then at 70-75.
If someone would enforce the current laws, we'd save a bundle on fuel. There's still an awful lot of big trucks and SUV's that love to bomb down the highway @ 80MPH.
65 is just fine.
I don't haul ass too much. Every once in a while ya gotta open it up to around 70 where you know there aren't any cops. But i'm 22 and drive like i'm 72 lol(speed wise). Sometimes the supercharger wants some fun!!!
You mean this?
There's really not a lot of info in that statement to be honest. Seems as if he'll push for it regardless, but will use the data to support his idea IF it does......I'm confident there would be no mention if in fact they discovered that the average vehicle made from the year 2000 to now operated at the highest MPG @ 65.
Again the issue isn't the limit IMHO, it's the horrific disregard.....Not the 5 MPH over but the 20....25.....30 over I encounter on a routine basis.
90% or cars reach there best mpg just over when overdrive kicks in. For a tbird or cougar, I'd bet on about 40 mph if there was a way to hold it constantly without stopping and starting.
For a stockish type car, if your OD comes on @ 40 it's time to adjust your TV cable/rod just a hair and yes there is a way to hold it.....It's called cruise control. Every AOD car I've ever driven/rode in has slipped out of OD at a lower speed than it went in. I.E if you go into OD @ 45 with minimal throttle and coast it'll shift back to 3rd at 40 or so.
If yours aint doin that I'd say again check all adjustments.
If you lower the speed limit nationally you also slow down every 18 Wheeler on the road. Products will get to their destinations much slower and this will raise the cost of everything because of supply and demand.
Not a good idea.
Ohio already makes 18 wheelers drive 55mph max. We have two speed limit signs beside each other on our highways. One for cars and one for trucks.
A Canadian trucker's association is pushing for the same thing. Their logic is that truckers speed because other truckers speed - in other words if you want to be competitive you have to do what everyone else is doing. If everyone was driving slower there'd be no competition and the trucking industry would save a lot of fuel.
Carl: I'd like to see your data supporting your statement, because it seems to me that everything's gotten more expensive since the double nickel was repealed. Whether it's related or not is certainly a stretch, but one thing is certain: Things didn't get cheaper. On a cross-country trip a 5MPH speed difference (say, from 70 to 60) might add up to a few hours. The fuel saved would more than make up for the time.
Total BS. Effin government AGAIN telling us how were gonna spend our money. HEY when it hurts me enough in the wallet I'll ease off for now I'll burn as much gas as I please. In the 55 zone on the major north-southbound highway here everyone does about 70, in the 65 zone most do 75 maybe even 80 as you get a little further north. I get so bored going the posted speed, this car loves goin fast. And on long trips it does make a difference!
Friggin puppiess. Piss off. Ill take the O2 sensors out and make her run really rich. Ooops you just got owned in the face.
I don't have data supporting my statement it was just a thought. I see your point about the fuel savings but I still don't think it's a good idea.
If you go to Dallas Texas you gotta be doing 10 or 20 over at least or you might not make it to the next exit. I wish people would not fill up a sonic parking lot and waste gas at idle and in the drive-thru i go to work mad everyday.
...gumball...
As for the truckers, their pockets will hurt more than it will help.
At my shop, we work on a car hauler company's fleet, and all of their drivers want us to turn up the trucks. They bitch about running 61-62 mph, and they want to run 65-66. When you have to try to run 2 loads between MD and NJ in one day, that few MPH really does make a difference. They get paid by the load, so the more loads they can squeeze in, the more they get paid. On the fuel economy side, they don't pay for their fuel.
It's two fold. Prices may go down because of less fuel burnt, but then like Carl said, there is the possibility of the prices going up because the shipping company may charge more because of time.
I do find it very funny. We bitch and complain about gas prices, and blame it on the government. The government finds a way to help us, as a country, conserve fuel. If we can conserve fuel, the price will go down. Now we have people telling the government to F-off because "they're trying to control us and our money".
People aren't happy unless they're bitching.
Which is the stupidest fornicatekin' law I ever did see...Two months later, I still get pissed thinking about driving I-70 across OH... You're crusing in the fast lane, making 70 or so and a 18 wheeler swings out in front of you going 61mph, passing 14 other trucks going 60.5mph... Three God ed miles for him to get around the other trucks... No sooner I clear those and a mile up the road another does the same... Well sir I jumped into the right lane and gagged it... Can tell you this, a '07 Grand Marquis will break a 100 mph in the length it took to pass that son of a bitch...
If I had to endure that shiznit on a daily basis, I'd kill someone...
My point exactly. Everyone wants to save energy as long as it's someone else doing the saving.
You should drive at the speed limit to save fuel so it'll become cheap so
I can drive at warp 90 in my SUV. Just don't get in front of me.
I've said it a hundred times - government is not going to help us out of this one (mainly because they wouldn't
dare do the the necessary things, such as forcing people to conserve). We're on our own. It's up to every individual in every civilized country on Earth to cut down on his/her own consumption.
I'm no environmental nut job, nor am I a "peak oil" alarmist. I do everything I can to conserve energy for one reason and one reason only: To save money. I'm a cheap motherfvcker. Every cent I don't spend on energy is a cent I don't spend on energy. The fact that I'm keeping my money out of the hands of hostile countries/governments is only icing on the cake. Environmental benefits, while good, do not even register on my radar (living in Canada I'd actually welcome a little global warming. Really. I could handle a climate like the one Tom lives in). It's all about cheap. $400 45-mpg Saturn daily driver held together by posicle sticks, band-aids and the grace of God. Wood heat (I cut my own wood on the cottage lot this year, so heat will essentially be free, and even just built a trailer to haul it behind the Saturn with so I don't have to feed the fuel-pig F-150, which has accrued about 200 miles over the past two years). CFL bulbs in every socket in the house. Desktop computer set to hibernate after 30 minutes of non-use. The list goes on.
I'm doing what I can to save money, not to save the planet.
That's the biggest road block the Canadian truckers asociation that wants speed limiters on trucks faces. Split speed limits are stupid and unsafe. Cars traveling at 75 dodging trucks traveling 60 are an accident waiting to happen.
I'm still not buying the "slower trucks make things more expesnive" argument. Generally, slower delivery costs less, and it'd be an interesting argument a shipping company would put forth to justify charging more for slower service. A simple trip to the post office or any UPS or FedEx depot will show you that you pay more for
faster delivery, not slower.
One thing I'm amazed hasn't happened yet is shipping companies selling space on their trucks to advertising. Some companies already do it (we've all seen the "BIG MAC" trailers, and Tim Hortons trailers will be familiar to Canadians), and it's common on city buses and taxi cabs. Truckers should think of their big, slab-sided trailers as mobile billboards seen by thousands daily, and they should market them as such. National companies would benefit from long-haul trailers (Imagine if GM could advertise the new Malibu on a bunch of trailers roaming all over North America, instead of relying on ads in magazines that not everyone reads) and local companies would benefit on short-haul trailers (Maritime-Ontario trucking, for example, could sell space to concerns in Ontario, Quebec, the Maritimes, and northern New England). It might not pay for the fuel, but it'd help...
Trucks aren't allowed in the left lane on many roads up in these parts.
True, but that doesn't stop them from doing it......Ever been cut off on an interstate and had to panic brake to ensure not dying? I've done it more than once on the NJ turnpike when I used to live in Jersey....
But basically you're comparing surface delivery to air, or in the case of next day, to put the parcel at the front of the line... Takes a little extra processing, you pay more(mostly for the convenience of getting it sooner)...
I doubt it would make a major difference in shipping prices, may take a day longer to get a package from one coast to another...
ONLY because you uttered this comment after mine...I'd like to mention that I'm only the second half of it. If anyone thinks it's the government's fault that gas is sky-high....well...
you are probably sky-high lol. I'm not bitching and complaining. My friend does. He has an internship AND lawns he gets cash for. Hes bringing home over 500 a week and drives an escape getting 24 MPG. He doesnt spend ANY of that other than gas, basically. I make less than half that in a week and drive a barge. Im puttin up with it. What are ya gonna do? Granted I do have a 4 mile commute to my job....buuuut its putting a huge damper on the # of old car shows I bring the '38 to. But I deal with it, and I dont take it out on others because how is it THEIR fault?
What I DO take issue with...is as you say, them trying to force me to conserve.
"...gumball..."
"What was that?"
"GUMBALL!!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UPQDW6ZOpA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fw3s9ZMiq0Y
Your my new hero!!!!!!!! Seriously..
:D Thanks! I was hoping SOMEBODY would get it!
The first rule of Italian driving: What's behind me is not important
LOL!
"whatza bee-HINDa me izza NOT imporrrrrtanta!"
I was just saying trucks would get stuff to the destination slower.
Let's use pineapples for example, Somewhere like Maine does not have pineapples naturally so it needs to be trucked from where pineapples are. Or flown then trucked. If trucks go slower, pineapples are still going to be eaten at the rate they were when trucks were going faster but the trucks will be brining them in at a slower rate.
With less pineapples, this will cause demand to increase and so will the price.
Pineapples are not native to most of the country and the same is true with many products. Or there is not enough product being produced in the region so it has to be imported from somewhere else.
That was my thought.
Not bitching, just a thought.
One word...Lapchick...I STILL laugh at that guy...
I can identify with him, as I too, am posessed of a certain "zhwar duh veev".
Back to the original topic, the entire concept of the 55 is bogus. It doesn't save gas. It doesn't save lives.
But!
It does provide additional income for insurance companies and munilities, and fuels the war between radar gun companies and radar detector companies (who often are supplying both sides).
I was keeping up on this for the most part… but 5 pages, I could have missed some.Didn’t they repeal the old 55 law on the grounds it turned out to be bogus and DIDENT save fuel or lives as expected? I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t save me squat. I run 80miles round trip to work twice a day and over half of that is at 70 (in the T-Bird). Per the guy that rebuilt my tranny when I bought the car, I shouldn’t run OD except through this area. With the hills around here it just wears the tranny out to fast trying to run 60- and it’s constantly shifting up and down, but at 70 it just stays in OD and cruses. And I’m sure I get better mileage in OD than I do in drive. They touch on some of this here…http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Maximum_Speed_Law (http://"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Maximum_Speed_Law")
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This is what I understood to be the case when it all leveled off…http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080703/NEWS06/807030404[/SIZE][/FONT]
It was safer to let them MOVE than try to hold them back, ever drive down the highway at 60 and have some grandma “merge” (using that term LOOSELY) into traffic at 40?
heres what most likely will happen. like it or not. speed limits drop to 55. here in jersey 65 was pushed up rite about when i started driving. now most major highways are back down to 55. we will be "saving" money on fuel as a country but bet you gas prices wont come down any. probably increase. you want to beat gas prices and save money. sorry to say. but time to brush off the dust on your walking shoes and or bike. pluse you get yourself in better shape and it's good for the enviroment. now I know people have to drive to places but if it is in walking distance or bike im adapting this bike/walk thing on my own. but this is just me thinking out loud
I am kinda lucky in that I already drive about 60-70 MPH on my fifty-effing-five mile commute to work (when I'm not working at home) just to save on gas a bit, so chaning the speed limit wouldn't effect me much. I do think it's a stupid stupid idea though - todays modern overdrive vehicles with tuned suspensions are barely breaking a sweat at 65 & some load up and get worse mileage when run slower than 65 MPH (not all).
Even my SUV gets it's best MPG at higher than 55......Seems to be a sweet spot @ 61-62. That's with 20" rims and 3.55's.